Jesus’ suffering is really kind of shocking based on who He is. To understand who He is, we first have to understand who His dad is. In the Bible, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was told straight out that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35) Jesus’ dad was none other than God Himself. So what’s this God like?
Genesis 1:1-3 says In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. If you read on in the story, it describes how God creates the stars and the sky and trees and flowers and animals and finally, people. Before anything ever was, God was. He is Creator, Himself an uncreated Being. He exists outside of the realms of time and space. If that makes your head hurt, you’re not alone. But I think it’s safe to say, God is really big. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8) God was, God is, and God will be. He is the start and the finish. He is, in a word, infinite. Eternal. Everlasting. Unending. Borderless.
He’s also got an incredible imagination. He spoke, and then there was light. He just invented light. Then He created every kind of plant and every kind of animal. Pansies and daisies and palm trees and pineapples and cacti and roses and redwood trees were all created on the third day. Then He thought up ants and aardvarks and elephants and monkeys and triceratops and lions and tigers and bears on the sixth day. In a mere six days, God thought up the universe!
Obviously a God like this would be pretty powerful. If He could just make light with a word, His bark as well as His bite have got to pack quite a punch. Think of the biggest, strongest person you know. The Bible says that the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25b) Hebrews 12:29 tells us plainly For our God is a consuming fire. Every time someone came face to face with Him, they were scared out of their wits. God is huge, and hugely powerful. Over and over again in the Bible, He is called ‘the Almighty,’ meaning completely powerful. Just read this description of Him in Psalm 18:7-15: Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry. Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His mouth; Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub, and flew; He flew upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters And thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered At Your rebuke, O Lord, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. Wow! This does not sound like someone you want to mess with. Make no mistake: God is more powerful, mightier, and stronger than anything in existence. After all, everything that is was created by Him.
Besides being big, creative, and powerful, this God is wise. In Proverbs 8, Wisdom is personified, and speaks these words “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. (vss. 22-23) From the beginning, God has been wise, and a lot more so than us. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Corinthians 1:25a) He possesses all knowledge as well, down to the most minute of details. “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (Luke 12:6-7a) God knows what’s up.
Finally, this God is holy. You may ask, what is holy? Holy is perfect. Completely, beautifully perfect, and fundamentally different from everything that is not. God is so beautifully perfect, so holy, that there are angels whose job is to shout it all day and all night. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) God is just plain amazing in holiness. He is so beautiful and so glorious, no one can stand to look at His face for too long without dying. He’s simply and literally awesome. Right now, trying to explain it, I can’t think of any words that would do Him justice. I don’t believe I, or anyone else, ever will.
So, this God is infinite, omnipotent (all powerful), super creative, omniscient (all knowing), and perfect. He seems like a guy worth getting to know. And Jesus was His Son. But why did Jesus, essentially God, come to the world in the first place?
It’s a pretty sad story. God created this amazing world, full of wonderful and marvelous things. There were animals of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and plants with equal variety. Sunrises and sunsets and cool breezes and oceans and mountains were all a part of this amazing place. God also created people to share this world with, and He was crazy about us. He loved us so much, He gave us a very special gift: free will. He allowed each of us to have the ability to choose for ourselves what we’d eat, or wear, or say, or do. There was only one thing, in fact, that He asked people not to do, and even then, it was for our own good. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Unfortunately, people chose to sin against God. We opened Pandora’s box. We invited greed and lust and hatred into the world, and those are not the type of things that God wants in His kingdom. So there was a gap between God and man.
Jesus was God’s solution. He came into this world for the purpose of dying a horrible death to pay for our crimes. He never committed a wrong. Like father, like son; Jesus was perfect and holy. Today, Jesus lives, having had His life restored to Him because of His innocence, and is honored by God for His sacrifice. All one must do to be forgiven of sin and freed from it is call on His name.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was mocked by many as He died. He was given a severe beating, the type that was often fatal, before being made to carry what would be the instrument of His death through the street. People spat on Him. His beard was yanked out of His face. Long steel spikes were driven through His wrists. The only way that He could breathe was to push Himself up on His feet, which were nailed together. Adding insult to injury, a crown made of thorns was placed on His head. The blood ran into His eyes as He hung there. His mother stood at the foot of His cross, and others said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:42-43) He was totally innocent of any crime.
The Man who was Immanuel, God With Us, was executed like a common criminal. The Son of the God who had created the world, who is all powerful and so full of wisdom and love, died. That God could be so full of love for us as to sacrifice His only Son is mind blowing. Jesus was 100% human and felt every blow. He wasn’t distant from the pain. He experienced Hell itself. This Man was God in the flesh. The same God who created light ventured into the darkness so that we wouldn’t have to be there forever.
How can I, knowing this, use His name casually? How can I hate people, knowing that He loves them enough to suffer so for their sakes? How can I live for my own pleasure? How can I do anything but offer my heart and soul, my life, and my everything to this God? And so I live in His grace, knowing that He has given me everything that I have, and for some reason, wants to give me more. I deserve the punishment He took, but He instead gives me peace, joy, love, and hope. He wants the same for you. Will you accept Him? Will you take the first step in getting to know this God? Let me just say this: He is very, very much worth it.
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