Recently reflecting on Jesus and how He suffered and died for the sins of the world, it occurred to me how most Christians take for granted all of the physical suffering and pain He experienced prior to and on the Cross ... not to mention how He was made alive by the Spirit! 1Peter 3:18-20 – “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
We hear “Jesus died for our sins” so often that we don’t stop to consider the reality of it all. The veil of the temple was torn, the earth quaked, the rocks rent and the sky was dark for three hours (a solar eclipse lasts just a few minutes). Mark 15:33 - “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”
Have you ever thought about the holy people of the Old Testament that were awaiting Jesus in Abraham’s bosom who, after His resurrection, awoke and came out of their graves? Matthew 27:50-53 – “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection meant that we don’t have to go through the tabernacle or prepare sacrifices in order to enter into God’s presence because He paid the ultimate sacrifice and Scripture was fulfilled!
Man of Sorrows! What a name for the Son of God, Who came, ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude; in my place, condemned He stood; sealed my pardon with His blood.
Guilty, vile, and helpless we; spotless Lamb of God was He; full atonement, can it be? Lifted up was He to die; "It is finished!" was His cry; now in heaven exalted high! When He comes, our glorious King, all His ransomed, home to bring; then anew this song we'll sing: Hallelujah! What a Savior!Isaiah 53:3 - “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Alleluia! What a Saviour!
