It must have been shocking. Ears accustomed to hearing the constant praises of the angels were suddenly surrounded by the silence of a single cell in a womb. It must have been shocking for the most powerful Being of all to feel the pain of an earthly body’s skinned knee. It must have been shocking for the King with ultimate authority to be beaten, tortured, spit on, and slapped by the very people He created– the very people He came to save.
It was a seemingly ludicrous choice. And it was, in fact, a choice. Jesus, the all-knowing Eternal one, knew every detail of what he was getting into.
It’s as if during a Heavenly Council before the foundation of the world, the Father asked: “Jesus how willing are you to rescue these people for the people to come to know us? Are you willing to listen to the centuries of human conversations where people miss our heart? Are you willing to empty yourself to go rescue them? Are you willing to go through the frustration on Earth of having what people need yet watching many not choose you? Are you willing to be falsely accused? Misrepresented? Publicly humiliated? Physically tortured to death? Seemingly abandoned by me?”
And to every question, Jesus answered with a resounding “Yes”.
It must have been a solemn day in heaven when Jesus left to come to Earth. Did the Angels worship song stop as the Son exchanged a knowing glance with the Father and the Spirit and stepped off His throne? Heaven must have been silent as He set His face like flint to the destiny He chose.
And years later, as Jesus hung bleeding on the cross, the weight of the world sin on His shoulders, feeling the separation from His Father, he once again said “yes” to the price of our freedom. Jesus chose to stay on the cross–nails could never bind the King of all. Jesus’s heart had not wavered. He would do anything–absolutely anything–to set us free.
After hours of torture, of mockery, of insult, of pain... Jesus chose to give up His Spirit. “It is finished” (John 19:30) He declared. And it was.
In that moment, His innocent, infinite life was given as the ransom for us–the sinfully stained, the guilty, the broken. The curse of sin shattered. And three days later when Jesus’ dead heart sprang back to life, He broke the curse of death too.
Long before in Eden, because of the first sin, the lifeline between us and God had been annihilated. It’s as if the light of life in Adam and Eve went out, and every one of their descendants, including us, carried black death in our souls. We were dead men walking, infected with the terminal illness of sin, and destined to pay for it with our very own lives. Hopelessly separated from God, we were blind, broken, and helpless.
Until Jesus. When Jesus shattered the curse of sin and broke the chains of death off our souls, He took care of everything that was in the way between us and God. Once carriers of black death, Jesus restored our connection with God, putting the light of life back in us. But that’s not all He did. He didn’t just set us free from sin and death. He didn’t just wipe our sin slate clean. He took our sin, and in exchange gave us His very own righteousness. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When God looks at us, He sees Jesus. We are literally clothed in Him. All of you who were baptized into Christ have closed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27).
It must have shocked the angels that Day in heaven when the king stepped off His throne, in essence removing His crown and His Robes of royalty. But they must have really gasped later, as they witnessed Him put His very own rope of righteousness on us.
Receive the robe of righteousness you’ve been given, rescued one. It came at a high price, from the heart of great love.
***
©2024, Walk Thru the Bible
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