Post by Les Brewer on Apr 15, 2014 22:09:28 GMT
"God is love."
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
For those of us who have put out faith in the finished work of Christ, this Holy week is a time to reflect on the love where which our God loved us. The sacrifice Jesus, who is God, made on our behalf brought reconciliation, redemption, salvation, freedom and forgiveness to man. For this post, however, I was lead by the Spirit of God to focus on the lesson of forgiveness Jesus model for us on the cross.
What is our focus when we read and meditate on the account of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior? For many Christians our focus is on Jesus’ suffering and He did. He suffered, bled and died for me and for you, but as I read this account I see that Jesus was not focus on his pain or on himself at all. Mankind and obtaining forgiveness for our sin against Him, which included those who crucified Him, was His focus.
From the cross, Jesus who is God, I had to repeat that because we need to know and recognize that it was God that hung on that cross for us. Jesus did not become God He was always God. God looks down from the cross into the faces of the Pharisees and the Sadducees that rejected Him as the Messiah, as God, as the Christ. He looked down into the faces of the men that beat him, that spat on him and the men that nailed his hands and feet to the cross. He could hear them mocking Him. He looked down the portals of time and He saw you and me also rejecting Him and mocking Him. Jesus’ response to cruelty, rejection, and mocking was, “Father, forgive then: for they know not what they do.” And He took the deaths that were the wages of their sins and our sins. Only God could abide His wrath upon sin and live. Jesus, our God, took the wrath of every sin of every man He had ever created giving us the assurance of His presence forever.
Jesus our God took the punishment for their crucifying the Messiah, God, the Christ. He took the punishment for what they did to Him. He loved them just as he loves us.
Jesus understood that they truly did not know what they were doing. Jesus knew who his real enemy was and that he, Satan, was influencing the behaviors and the actions of these men. We are being conformed into the image of Christ and we need to understand this kingdom principle. We need to know who our real enemy is. This principle is the key to unity in the church, families, marriages, and all other relationships. It is the key to truly loving our enemies. True forgiveness allows you to continue love a person while they are crucifying and mocking you. If we love and forgive as Jesus does marriages, and all other relationships will be rich and powerful in that abundant life promised to the children of God.
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
For those of us who have put out faith in the finished work of Christ, this Holy week is a time to reflect on the love where which our God loved us. The sacrifice Jesus, who is God, made on our behalf brought reconciliation, redemption, salvation, freedom and forgiveness to man. For this post, however, I was lead by the Spirit of God to focus on the lesson of forgiveness Jesus model for us on the cross.
What is our focus when we read and meditate on the account of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior? For many Christians our focus is on Jesus’ suffering and He did. He suffered, bled and died for me and for you, but as I read this account I see that Jesus was not focus on his pain or on himself at all. Mankind and obtaining forgiveness for our sin against Him, which included those who crucified Him, was His focus.
From the cross, Jesus who is God, I had to repeat that because we need to know and recognize that it was God that hung on that cross for us. Jesus did not become God He was always God. God looks down from the cross into the faces of the Pharisees and the Sadducees that rejected Him as the Messiah, as God, as the Christ. He looked down into the faces of the men that beat him, that spat on him and the men that nailed his hands and feet to the cross. He could hear them mocking Him. He looked down the portals of time and He saw you and me also rejecting Him and mocking Him. Jesus’ response to cruelty, rejection, and mocking was, “Father, forgive then: for they know not what they do.” And He took the deaths that were the wages of their sins and our sins. Only God could abide His wrath upon sin and live. Jesus, our God, took the wrath of every sin of every man He had ever created giving us the assurance of His presence forever.
Jesus our God took the punishment for their crucifying the Messiah, God, the Christ. He took the punishment for what they did to Him. He loved them just as he loves us.
Jesus understood that they truly did not know what they were doing. Jesus knew who his real enemy was and that he, Satan, was influencing the behaviors and the actions of these men. We are being conformed into the image of Christ and we need to understand this kingdom principle. We need to know who our real enemy is. This principle is the key to unity in the church, families, marriages, and all other relationships. It is the key to truly loving our enemies. True forgiveness allows you to continue love a person while they are crucifying and mocking you. If we love and forgive as Jesus does marriages, and all other relationships will be rich and powerful in that abundant life promised to the children of God.
