When I was a little boy I used to make a list of my sins before going to confession. One day I panicked because I had lost my list. Have you ever done that? Would you want anyone to see a list of your sins? Would you like your sins to be made public? How would you feel if a list of all your sins was posted high on billboard for anyone to see?
Do you know that there was a moment when a list of our sins was made public? Neither you n
or I have seen it, but that happened when Christ was crucified at Calvary.
Could Jesus have stopped the crucifixion? Yes. He could have by the clenching of His hands. Those hands are mighty hands. Those hands are the hands of God. Those hands formed Adam out of clay. Those hands toppled the tower of Babel and parted the Red Sea. From those hands came the locusts that plagued Egypt and the raven that fed Elijah.
But Christ did not clench His fist to abort the moment. Thus, the mallet sounded, Christ's skin ripped and blood began to flow.
We think that Jesus did not clench his hands because He loves us. Very true. But there was much more to His motivation - He saw something which made Him not want to resist. He saw something that the crowd at the foot of the cross missed. The crowd concluded that pounding was to skewer Jesus to the cross. But that is only half true and we cannot fault them for they could not see what Jesus saw and we could see.
Through the lens of the Scriptures, we know what others missed that Jesus saw: "He cancelled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).
Between Christ and wood of the cross was a long list of our sins...all our lusts, envy, greed, anger, bitterness and despair. Dangling from the cross was an itemized catalogue of all our wrongdoings, every sinful decision made, every bad attitude.
God penned a list of our sins, but the list He made could not be red. Our sins were covered and hidden. The top of the list were covered by His hands and those below were covered by His blood. Jesus blotted away our sins. "He has forgiven all your sins. He utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which always hang over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).
Christ knew that the source of those sins are ourselves. He also knew that the punishment of those sins is eternal death. Christ chose to die for us because He could bear the thought of eternity without us.
The purpose of the nails was to place our sins where they could be hidden by His sacrifice and covered by His blood.
The hands that were nailed to the cross where the same hands that stilled the sea and stills our heart. The same hands
The gateway of heaven was re-opened for us as soon as Jesus Christ allowed His hands to be nailed on the cross for our sake.
Do you know that there was a moment when a list of our sins was made public? Neither you n
or I have seen it, but that happened when Christ was crucified at Calvary.
Could Jesus have stopped the crucifixion? Yes. He could have by the clenching of His hands. Those hands are mighty hands. Those hands are the hands of God. Those hands formed Adam out of clay. Those hands toppled the tower of Babel and parted the Red Sea. From those hands came the locusts that plagued Egypt and the raven that fed Elijah.
But Christ did not clench His fist to abort the moment. Thus, the mallet sounded, Christ's skin ripped and blood began to flow.
We think that Jesus did not clench his hands because He loves us. Very true. But there was much more to His motivation - He saw something which made Him not want to resist. He saw something that the crowd at the foot of the cross missed. The crowd concluded that pounding was to skewer Jesus to the cross. But that is only half true and we cannot fault them for they could not see what Jesus saw and we could see.
Through the lens of the Scriptures, we know what others missed that Jesus saw: "He cancelled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).
Between Christ and wood of the cross was a long list of our sins...all our lusts, envy, greed, anger, bitterness and despair. Dangling from the cross was an itemized catalogue of all our wrongdoings, every sinful decision made, every bad attitude.
God penned a list of our sins, but the list He made could not be red. Our sins were covered and hidden. The top of the list were covered by His hands and those below were covered by His blood. Jesus blotted away our sins. "He has forgiven all your sins. He utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which always hang over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross" (Col. 2:14).
Christ knew that the source of those sins are ourselves. He also knew that the punishment of those sins is eternal death. Christ chose to die for us because He could bear the thought of eternity without us.
The purpose of the nails was to place our sins where they could be hidden by His sacrifice and covered by His blood.
The hands that were nailed to the cross where the same hands that stilled the sea and stills our heart. The same hands
The gateway of heaven was re-opened for us as soon as Jesus Christ allowed His hands to be nailed on the cross for our sake.
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