The Passover may properly be
observed and celebrated this year from the Evening of March 25 until
April 2, 2013. YES, with DESIRE the Lord wants you to observe Passover
in REMEMBRANCE of Him and the great work of Redemption that He did for
us.
The CROSS - wherein Messiah our Passover was sacrificed for us, is THE focus. We are pressed on every side. It could easily be
overwhelming, without focus on that greatest REALITY of all history.
It is all at the Cross. The reality of what our King did on that Cross
outside the City of Jerusalem, on that Wednesday, Nissan 14, in 30 AD,
is the Focus For Hope. The reality of that sacrifice will save us from
the wrath to come, IF we continue in the way of that Blessed Hope. (John
8:31, Rom 11:22, Col 1:23, and 1 John 2:24) Those IF's in those
profoundly important four Scriptures mean there is a condition, which
MUST be met. The Cross is THE Focus, to keep
us directed to meet that condition that will keep the Blessed Hope.
None of us will have to endure anything compared to what He endured for
us. During the three hours of the darkness on that Cross, Jesus was in
agony, wrestling with the powers of darkness. He was making His soul an
offering for the sin of SINNERS. Never were there three such hours since
the day God created man upon the earth, never such a dark and awful
scene. It was the turning point of that great love of the Creator for
His creatures. The Redemption and Salvation of SINNERS, who would
confess they were sinners, and turn away from sin, was being
accomplished. The REQUIRED Sin Offering of Redemption was being
accomplished.
As we think of the complaint that Jesus cried out to God, from Psalms
22:1, we should know our King in the midst of such agony was
teaching us something so important. He was teaching us how important the
Word of God is to direct us in prayer. Scripture should be woven into
prayer.
The believer may have tasted some bitterness, suffering, and pain.
Sometimes we may feel as Yeshua did on that Cross, that we have been
forsaken. Knowing that He had that same feeling, which we will all
experience in the valley of the shadow of death, provides substance and
evidence of our Blessed Hope, no matter how bad our
circumstances may be. We can only form a very feeble idea of the
greatness of Christ's sufferings. Still this focus on the Cross gives understanding of the Savior's love toward SINNERS.
The SIN of SINNERS caused, and required, this greatest of all
injustices. Here we get deeper conviction of the vileness and evil
of sin. Here in that focus on the Cross, we get more understanding
of what we owe to Jesus Christ, Who ALONE delivers us from the wrath to
come. There is NO OTHER Name, which will deliver from the wrath to come.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? His enemies wickedly
ridiculed His complaint. Many of the reproaches cast upon the Word
of God, and the people of God, arise, from gross failure to appreciate
and understand such things. Messiah, just before He died, spoke in His
full strength, to show that His life was not forced from Him. He IS The
Life. Life is IN Him. He was required to exercise His will, according to
the will of The Father, to FREELY choose to deliver His very life, and
freely deliver His soul, mind, will, and emotions, into His Father's
hands. He had strength to bid defiance to the powers of death. He did
cry out, not only defiance to the powers of death, but FINAL victory
over them. By His Eternal Spirit of Truth and Holiness, He became the
required Sin OFFERING. He offered Himself to REDEEM us. Yeshua THE
Messiah, being the Priest as well as the Sacrifice. He cried with a loud
voice. Then He yielded up the ghost.
The Son of God upon the Cross did die by the violence of the pain He
suffered for the sin of SINNERS. His soul was separated from His
body, and so His body was left really and truly dead. It was certain
that Christ did die. It was required that He should die for the sin
of SINNERS. He had agreed to make Himself an Offering for Sin, and
He did it when He willingly gave up His life. In what He did on that
Cross the Love of God was manifested. In His death on that Cross the
purpose for which the Son of God was manifested, to destroy the
works of the devil, was accomplished and made FOREVER CERTAIN. He said,
IT IS FINISHED. The devil is a finished forever-defeated foe. Lucifer,
Satan the devil, is finished and ultimately defeated, regardless of
whatever false evidence we might see, or may personally experience,
contrary to that FOREVER CERTAIN FINISHED REALITY.
There was a thick darkness over the land, from noon until three in
the afternoon. The Judean Jews attached to the temple complex were doing
their utmost to extinguish the Son of God. THE JEWS DID NOT PUT HIM
THROUGH THIS, IT WAS MY SIN AND YOUR SIN, WHICH CAUSED THIS HORROR, AND
GREATEST OF INJUSTICE. HE BORE THAT INJUSTICE SO THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE
THE FRUIT OF THE INJUSTICE HE BORE FOR US. HE, AS ONLY HE COULD, DID
MAKE THE PAYMENT FOR US. HIS PAYMENT OF THE PRICE WE COULD NOT PAY DID
SATISFY THE REQUIRED JUSTICE OF THE HOLY GOD. HE SUBSTITUTED THE
SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF TO PAY OUR DEBT BEFORE THE HOLY GOD. WOW! HOW COULD
WE COMPLAIN OVER WHATEVER AFFLICTION THAT MAY BE REQUIRED FOR US TO
ENDURE FOR HIS NAME SAKE?
The darkness signified the cloud which the human soul of Christ was
under, when He was making His soul an Offering for Sin. He did not
complain that His disciples forsook Him, but that His Father forsook
Him. In this He was made the SIN OFFERING, for us. When Paul
was to be offered as a sacrifice for the service of the Saints, he could
joy and rejoice, Philippians 2:17; but it is another thing to be offered as a sacrifice for the sin of sinners.
At the same instant that Jesus died, the veil of the temple was ripped
and torn from the top to the bottom. This spoke terror to the
unbelieving Judean Jews attached to Judaism's Temple and its priesthood.
It was a sign of their destruction. However, the sign of the veil being
ripped by God from top to bottom, that veil that barred access and
vision of the MOST HOLY PLACE, speaks comfort to all believers in
Messiah, Yeshua. For that torn veil signified the laying open of a new
and living way into the MOST HOLY PLACE, by
the Blood of Jesus, THE LAMB OF GOD. To ourselves, and to all we
proclaim, BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD.
The confidence with which Christ had openly addressed God as His
Father, and committed His soul into His hands, even greatly affected
the Roman Centurion conducting the execution. Right views of Jesus
THE Christ, Yeshua THE Messiah, crucified, will reconcile the believer
to the thought of death. We may not have a death wish, yet
we do long to see Him, to express Love to Him, and Praise Him, as He
ought to be praised, IN HOLINESS, undefiled. What a great King. What a
worthy King. The Savior, Redeemer, and Friend of SINNERS, was wounded
and pierced to save SINNERS from the wrath to come. Jesus Christ SAVES,
is all I know. There is no other name by which we might be saved. Jesus
Christ died for SINNERS, and was resurrected for our justification. That
is THE Gospel. There is NO OTHER gospel that a redeemed sinner can
know, or tolerate.
Amen
(Thank you to Jim Searcy and his excerpt from the Great Joy in Great Tribulation website; moresureword.com)
