Tears are literally streaming down my face as I write this blog entry. I was just listening to one of my favorite songs, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” ….I can never listen to that song and not be compelled to well up (I’m a crybaby I know ha ha).
If you have been a Christian for more than a second then you know the story of the cross. My intention for writing this is not to teach you anything new but rather to invite you to Praise God with me for the incredible sacrifice of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that the cross would never get old for you. That it would never become a side note. In scripture everything leading up to it and everything preceding it all points back to the cross. May we never lose our wonder and admiration for what Christ has done for us.
I love that from the beginning of time God had the plan of redemption in his mind. We see glimpses of Christ’s sacrifice from the first book of the bible on through Revelation. In the book of Genesis there is an incredible foreshadowing of the cross through the story of Abraham and his beloved son Isaac. (Read through Genesis 22 when you have the time).
If you can recall with me, God had promised Abraham that he would give him many descendants through his son Isaac, but then he turns around and asks Abraham “Take your son…your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there.” The Hebrew word used for love here is ahab- meaning “to love, desire, delight.” This is the first time this word is used in Scripture and it is a beautiful description of a Father’s love for his child. He not only loved his son, he delighted in him; he found great joy in him. Can you imagine the excruciating pain of knowing that you had to kill the one that you loved the most?
I absolutely adore the response Abraham gave his son when he asked “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” He answered him saying “God will provide for himself a lamb” (Genesis 22:8). Just as he was about to slaughter his son “Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering INSTEAD of his son. So Abraham called the place THE LORD WILL PROVIDE.” (Genesis 22:13-14).
I read something quite interesting the other day….In the Middle Eastern terrain a thicket ordinarily referred to a thorn bush. I can just picture the ram stuck in the thicket, his head wrapped in the thorns. Notice the resemblance to our savior with a crown of thorns adorning his head as well???
God was faithful to provide a replacement for Abraham just as he has provided a replacement for us. Note here what John 1:29 says: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” God has indeed provided the lamb! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
“The very heart of the gospel is realizing that God did not simply provide a sacrifice for us but instead of us” (Beth Moore). Can you imagine the great relief Isaac must have felt as he leapt down from the place of sacrifice? That should have been him up there but the Lord graciously provided something to take his place.
These words from scripture just leap off the page for me: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—“Romans 3:23-25 (New International Version)
WOW!!! That should have been me upon the cross but because of the grace of God I did not have to get upon that place of sacrifice.
I love the words from the Thrice song Beggars “Don’t you see that everything is grace after all.” We have nothing to boast in. It is only because of Christ that we are able to have a hope in a future beyond our present circumstances.
Thank you Father for sending your only beloved son, whom you adored and delighted in,to be an atoning sacrifice for my sins. That should have been me upon that cross but you graciously provided a replacement. Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to suffer the horrible weight of sin. May we never lose our wonder and admiration for the cross. I am so thankful for your grace. In Jesus name Amen.
Solid. What a great reminder… “instead.” What a heart-shattering truth. Was just meditating on Eph2 today, and this is super relevant. Praise God for giving us himself!