But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. Romans 5:8-9.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night Jesus was betrayed, Jesus spoke to the chief priests, scribes, and elders who had come out against Him with swords and clubs saying, “while I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but the hour and the power of darkness are yours.” Luke 22:53. He told them the darkness that was released that night, the evil, the prince of darkness, the realm that He had come to rescue you from, was controlling and emanating out of them. Normally that would have had no sway over Him, always before He had just walked away from them because there was no darkness in Him at all, but that night in that hour, He had received all sin into His own flesh and gone completely under the control of darkness, that is, the curse of death. For the wages of sin is death. He was now standing on enemy territory in the shoes of sinners and thus He was open to attack by Satan.
That is why that night Jesus counselled you so strongly to pray that you not be put to the test. Stay away from sin as from a poisonous snake, for sin will bite you if you are in the territory of the dragon, that ancient serpent, known as the devil and Satan. Take his territory by staying in the Light, NEVER let him take you into his territory by sinning. And you do not have to let him do so. Sin is crouching at the door trying to rush in at the first crack of walking out of love on your part, but you can be its master if you keep alert. So pray so you are alert to his tactics.
Jesus though was operating according to My plan and was about to take the enemy’s territory away from him with respect to those who would receive Him as Lord and believe I raised Him from the dead. If Satan had known what was going on in Jesus, he NEVER would have crucified the Lord of glory. He thought he had won but he did not understand one who would give His life to save mankind and give man the gift of My own righteousness.
Satan on that day did not realize that in taking hold of Jesus, he lost his hold on you. Jesus was not paying Satan anything, Jesus was paying the ransom to Me for what Satan had caused all who would submit to him to do against Me. My Son was paying Me the price due to Me for your sins. He was paying with the eternal life He had in the flesh for the eternal life you lost by obeying your flesh over your spirit. In Jesus, I condemned sin in the flesh and brought you to new birth in the spirit.
Satan did not realize this was the prophecy of the Garden of Eden fulfilled, he grabbed the heel of the foot of the One who then turned and crushed his head. Jesus broke Satan’s power over death. Jesus redeemed you from the curse of the law. He took the curse on Himself on that day and bore sickness, pain, abandonment, mental anguish, and oppression of sin and shame and set all the captives free who would come out of the oppression of the devil through faith in Him.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Hebrews 2:14-15.
I have rescued you from the power of darkness and translated you as a new creation to the Kingdom of My beloved Son, in whom you have redemption the forgiveness of your sins by His blood.
So let us begin the darkest hours that ever were upon earth, the day that every sin from the beginning to the end of time was on Jesus and the wrath of divine justice fell on Him like an avalanche, like lightning bolts. Every filthy sin was there, putting Him in darkness. It was Satan’s hour, but it really was his hour to lose his power.
This was the evil day I speak of in the Bible. I speak of good days but there is an evil day. Sin in all its hideous array was in the open that day, parading before Me in derision and rejection of My Son, and when you reject Him, you reject Me. There is nothing pretty about sin. It twists you into an ugly mess and leaves you as a carcass of flesh where the vultures gather. It has nowhere to go but death, the second death. Sin may look good at first, but it will take you down to hell. There is no peace (shalom, wholeness) for the wicked. Sin takes you captive to do the devil’s will, until like Judas and Herod you cannot escape to be yourself again. There is a path that seems right to a man but ends in death and it is the path of not heeding My Word. My Words are not idle words, they are your life.
And that day, Jesus looked sin full in the face and took it all into Himself. It struck Him down into darkness and took Him to the dust of death. He tasted the torment of the damned, of the second death. It divided Him from Me by a chasm that could not be crossed. My eyes are too pure to look on evil so I turned My face away from Him and that separation was the hardest suffering for Him to endure just as it is for the damned. For you were made to live in Me and separation is death for you. Jesus drained to the dregs the cup of My wrath so that you would never have to drink it.
And as Jesus struggled under the crushing weight of your sins, they led Him to the place called Golgotha across from the temple mount. Golgotha means “place of the skull.” And if you know anything about David and Goliath, you know what I am referring to. After his victory over Goliath of Gath, David cut off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s own sword, which he kept and later put in the custody of the priests, and then he ran carrying the huge head of Goliath through the streets all the way to Jerusalem and there it was buried. 1 Samuel 17:54. David had chosen Jerusalem, just as his ancestor Caleb had done, for the place from which he would reign, his palace was on Zion. And before he fought Goliath, Samuel had anointed David to be king though Saul was still in power. And the mountain where it was buried had taken on the markings of the skull in its formation of crags and rocks.
But Golgotha was also the place where death was defeated by My Son dying to sin once for all. The head of the devil was crushed that day. The place of the skull. Death had met its match.
Remember what John wrote on Patmos many years later when He saw the risen Christ in all His splendor? When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18.
When Jesus arrived at Golgotha, where His crucifixion would take place, also called Mt. Calvary, a mountain of Moriah across from Temple mount, the soldiers gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall, as prophesied by David (Psalm 69), and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink it.
Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Psalm 69:20-21.
Gall was made from myrrh and mixed with the light wine rendered acid that the soldiers drank. It was meant to dull the senses and ease the pain. Jesus had come to take away your sins, ills, and pains and not to ease the pain, but to bear it to the full. He was determined to go all the way for your salvation.
Surely our illness and diseases He Himself bore, and our pains He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5.
They stripped Him of his garments, but we will see that is not the end of His garments in a moment, and nailed Him to the Cross, piercing His hands and His feet with large nail pegs that caused Him to bleed even more profusely than He had been. The two criminals who were led out with Him to Golgotha were also crucified, one on the right and the other on the left. The placing of Jesus between two criminals had been carefully calculated to make Him look guilty and count Him among the wicked before the people.
The chief priests, scribes and elders had taken the front places, as they were used to doing at anything they attended, to witness this horrible event and they were mocking Him. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34.
That was My Son’s first Words spoken at the crucifixion, so you know they had great importance for every one of you to this day.
Before Jesus stood the Jews, the Gentiles (Romans, such as the soldiers, guards, and the centurion), and the Church (the believers in Me and My Son represented at the Cross by John, Mary, and the other women), all three groups that are in the world. There are no others, you either do not believe in Me (Gentiles), or you believe in Me but you have not received Jesus (Jews), or you believe in Me and Jesus and the Holy Spirit (the Church). Jesus was with these first Words qualifying everyone from the beginning to the end of time to benefit from the offering of Himself to Me as the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. If you recall, a sinner could only offer these sacrifices and have his sins covered if his sin was unintentional. Leviticus 4:2; 4:22; 4:27; Leviticus 5:15: 5:18. Intentional, premeditated sins were punishable by death, there was no offering for those. And this law was the same for all people, alien or Jew.
Also if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one year old female goat for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the alien who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’” Numbers 15:27-31.
So first, He qualified to take full advantage of His death to take away your sins and the punishment due them. He saved you from the wrath to come.
But My Words have many levels and will never be done away with for they are eternal and established in Heaven forever.
I have told you that you must forgive those who do wrong to you so that I can forgive you. By the standard by which you judge you will also be judged. I have told you to forgive those who abuse and hurt you, who take things from you, who are offensive to you. That does not mean you allow evil to be called good, it just means it does not hold you in bitterness and anger and lock you up in the oppression of unforgiveness so that I cannot get My blessings into your closed and hardened heart. Vengeance and judgment are Mine, your part is not to let it hold you prisoner to its torment.
I tell you that with your own eyes you will see the recompense of the wicked, but you are to be like Me, I love everyone, I have no malice or rancor in My heart to any of you, Christ died for ALL, but that does not mean they can enter My Kingdom if they have given themselves over to evil. It does not mean I do not discipline or correct. That is love. Love is not permissive to evil , love does not tolerate evil. Evil cannot find a place to enter perfect love. Evil cannot find a place to live in the Light. Evil cannot participate in Glory. It is foreign to it and is repelled away from its walls. For the walls of My Kingdom are Salvation and its gates are praise.
Jesus here showed you the most beautiful act of forgiveness done to please Me and to extend My legal mercy to those who had lied about Him, spit at Him, slapped Him, rejected Him, were jealous of Him, and were still mocking Him. He said they did not know what they were doing. What they were doing was premeditated, planned, and executed by the Sanhedrin to put My Son to death, but Jesus told the truth, if they had really known Him they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
And there was another level here too. When I raised Jesus from the dead and He stood again in the midst of His disciples He gave them an authority that He had while on earth and used in these first words at the crucifixion. He extended My forgiveness to them.
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” John 20:19-23.
I have given you the authority to apply the blood of My Son on the mercy seat in Heaven for the forgiveness of sinners. My Son has released you from your sins and made you a kingdom, priests unto Me. And the priests were the ones who received the burnt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and the guilt offering and made atonement at the bronze altar for the sinner. If the lamb offered for the sinner was unblemished and the sin unintentional, the sinner was forgiven by Me. Not for anything the sinner did but because of the quality of the lamb.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.
Do you see? Stop harboring grudges and unforgiveness that torment you and blocks you from receiving blessings and answers to your prayers, not because I am withholding them but because your door is so bound up with bitter roots that what I am sending you is piling outside the door to your heart as undeliverable. Instead start interceding for those who have mistreated you and offering the unblemished Lamb of sacrifice, Jesus for them. Jesus can help you with this for He faced much opposition, abuse, and pain and yet He ever lives to make intercession for you to the uttermost.
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Hebrews 2:17-18.
What am I showing you here? What I will show you in a moment again with the criminal hanging next to Him who repented. The only important thing for your life is that at the end of your life on this earth is that when you stand before Me I see nothing but love in you and in the fruit of your life, that is, in your thoughts during your life, the works and words you did and said in your life, and what is in your heart at the time of death, when you leave your physical body behind and your spirit and soul come home to Me to be clothed in the heavenly body of immortality, majesty and splendor, to be like Me. And I am love. There is nothing else in Me. Nothing else can enter Me or live with Me. Let there be nothing else in you as well. Let Me see My image in you, the way I made you to be. And that is pure love.
That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:22-24.
If I were to look in your heart right at this moment, would I see nothing but love there? Or would there be thoughts of malice, unforgiveness, bitterness, complaining about others, gossip about others faults, and offense? It would be best if you would judge yourself on this and repent if need be. Jesus will help you. He understands but He has overcome the world.
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Hebrews 2:9-11.
We have looked at the first words of Jesus in the crucifixion and we could go on to even greater heights and depths in this one sentence. But that is enough to chew on for today in our Eucharistic journey with Jesus.
I love you and that is what life is all about. And that is what your life should be about too if you are about My business like Jesus always was. Everlasting, unfailing, never quitting, always giving, beautiful love.
Faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. My love for you, in you, and with you. Make it your own. You can, for I have already poured it in your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now work out what is already in you.