So, in explanation, the following post is an essay I wrote several months ago. Several posts back, I mentioned the great need to constantly rehearse Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection in our minds. This is my attempt to practice what I posted. Hopefully it will help someone. Or if not, just sit back in awe at Jesus' sacrifice.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
The most amazing story in the
world, and yet at the same time one of the most beautiful and complex, while at
the same time shockingly simple stories is that of Jesus Christ. To a
Christian, Jesus is our identity, Savior, and life-giver. To a Jew, He is a
deceiver and a liar. To many atheists, he never existed. To a Muslim, he is merely
a good prophet. To a Mormon, he is a man, but an agent of God. One could safely
say that no one man in the entire history of the world has promised such peace
and brought such controversy, also as He promised. There is a time and a place
for apologetics, but the purpose of this treatise is simply to enumerate the
amazingness of Jesus Christ and the gospel.
The more of the gospel one
researches and discovers the more transfixed one is by the beauty of it all.
One’s awe simply grows the more one knows. The entire story is the most
beautiful ever told; the weaving of beautiful tale that combines love,
treachery, deceit, murder, victory, and mercy. No one story in the history of
the world so masterfully presents the nature of man, and the nature of God. We
see the depth of man’s depravity and the greatness of God’s mercy and grace
shown with a clarity rarely seen.
To understand any story one must
start with the beginning. In the beginning, God creates man, his creation, to
glorify him. And man turns his back upon God, and rebels against God, bringing
the judgment of God upon himself, but even in this awful moment, when
perfection becomes imperfect, God gives hope. God shows mercy to rebellious,
sinful man even at the depth of his depravity. That itself shows the
amazingness of God, that a holy God would show mercy to unholy man even at the
moment of his greatest fall.
When the time for the fulfillment
of the prophecy given in Genesis 3 has come, we see the greatest miracle
possible occur. The more one reads of it, the less one understands of the
reason. God makes so great a sacrifice, to save rebels? It shows the most
amazing love of God, and in the same breath it shows the depravity and
treachery of sinful man.
God is born as a man. These six
simple words paint a picture of indescribable beauty. A perfect God becomes man
to bear our imperfection; a sinless God lives among sinful man to make us sinless
in the eyes of the Father. This love is beyond our comprehension; it tops the
heights of our comprehension. Christ, the Son of almighty God, is born in a
stable among cattle and sleeps upon straw, to redeem men; the same men who
attempt to kill him as a baby in Bethlehem, and as a rabbi in Jerusalem. He
becomes man for the benefit of those in rebellion against Him, for those who
hate Him, for those who stand against Him. He comes to earth; He leaves the
splendor of Heaven, for them. For their sin, for their rebellion, for their
hate, He comes.
This same Jesus lives a life of
love, healing the sick, saving the dying, giving hope to hopeless, and saving
the souls of those who rebelled. He dedicates himself; He pours out himself,
for them, for us; for these same creations, so blind by their own rebellion
they cannot see the light; so bruised they cannot feel His touch, He comes.
He comes, to die. He comes, so
that His death may bring us, rebels, life. Even as the ultimate act of
treachery is made, the ultimate act of love is shown. As ultimate evil is
demonstrated, ultimate righteousness is exemplified. Even as sinful man abuses
this same love, they are accomplishing the purpose for which Christ came. Even
as men, sinners, you and I, abuse the Lamb of God, He is accomplishing His work
of love and redemption, the work for which He came, the work for which He died.
God, having become man for us,
lies bloody on a cross. The horror of that picture cannot be fathomed by human
minds. The Creator, tortured by the creation, but not just by the creation. He
does this for the creation. For the benefit of those who stand against Him, he
bears the pain, the agony, the humiliation, the sting, the nakedness, the cold
of death. He, in the moment of His greatest pain, shows love through death.
And in that death, Christ gives
what we could not give ourselves. He gives us life; He gives us righteousness.
One of the most beautiful images in the Bible is recorded in Isaiah 61:10, “I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he
hath clothed me with the garments of salvation and covered me with the robe of
righteousness: he hath decked me like a bridegroom, and as a bride attireth
herself with her jewels.” We emerge from the death of Christ, a sin of man, a
work of God, with the righteousness of God covering us. We now live in the
grace of God, and my sin is covered. In this work of God, we become the
beneficiaries of gifts from Jesus, from the one we killed. Christ gives us
grace to cover our sin through His blood, not because of us, but in spite of
us.
The beauty of the picture
unfolds. In the depth of man’s depravity, God comes and covers us in
righteousness and dresses us in his grace. Our sin, our rebellion against God,
is covered, not because of merit or actions of mine, but only because of the
mercy of a loving God. While lost in sin, Christ finds us, not because I
deserve it, but because He loves me. And that gives me my identity, that I am
loved by God. Not because I deserve it, but because of the great unchangeable,
unknowable love of my God. And because of that love, I stand guiltless before a
completely holy God, clothed in the righteousness of His Son, that I do not
deserve, but I am granted because of His love, because of His mercy, because of
His grace.
The tale does not end at a tomb.
For while His death brought us life, His resurrection brought us hope. God
himself, Creator of man, becomes man, is killed by man to save man, and is
resurrected to give hope to the same men, rebels. Christ rises from the dead,
having accomplished our justification, and now sits at the Father’s right hand.
Yet another image of incredible
beauty comes to mind. 1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and one Mediator
between God and man, which is the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom
for all men, to be that testimony in due time.” In this verse, the beautiful
imagery of Christ, standing between the wrath of the Father and the sin of the
creation, shines through with clarity. He stands, the One we bruised, as our
Mediator. He stands, the One we killed, as our Protector. His blood stands, the
blood we shed, and it pleads for His children, the very ones who led the Christ
to His death.
Our Mediator, Christ, stands
between the accuser and the accused, and points to His sacrifice. The blood,
the sacrifice, is our atonement. The moment of our greatest sin was the means
of communicating the love of God to rebels, and He, the victim of our
rebellion, stands forever as a reminder of our sin
and God’s love.
The Scripture sets out yet
another beautiful word picture to communicate this gospel. The bread and wine,
symbols of Christ’s blood and flesh, reflects once again our guilt, and God’s
grace. The wine stands to remind us of His blood, which we shed; the bread to
remind us of His flesh, which we tore from His body. These sacraments stand
forever as reminders of Christ’s sacrifice, given to us at the moment of our
greatest unworthiness.
And once again, we see the great
undeserved grace of God. He reminds us of our guilt and of His love in the same
fluid motion. His love, His forgiveness, His grace, communicated to man through
man’s sin and rebellion. By the sacrifice of Christ, we enter into His gifts,
His rest, His peace, and His grace. And that is where I live, firmly planted in
Christ. And that is where my identity rests, nailed to the naked, torn body of
a man on a cross; but not just a man; God, in flesh, bearing my sin, my
rebellion, my depravity. And that is my peace.
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