For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)
Paul instructed that Jesus, the great I Am, who was the exact imprint of the FATHER, was also “the image of the invisible GOD” and that “In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Col. 1:15, Col. 2:9) Jesus, furthermore, instructed that there is no way to the FATHER but through Him. To know the Son, He said, was to know the FATHER. And that by seeing and knowing Him, the FATHER can also be seen and known. (Jn. 14:6-7) Clearly, there is no denying the Oneness between the Son and the FATHER. (Jn. 10:30) And to deny One is to deny the Other.
The Greatest Love of All
The Love between FATHER and Son is so unfathomable that we cannot, with human faculties, wrap our minds around this truth except through faith. Love is what moved the FATHER to send the Son to earth to overcome the works of the beguiling Serpent on our behalf. Jesus’ Love for His FATHER and for a fallen humanity is what moved Him to obediently go to the Cross of Redemption. And when considering this greatest Love of all, the mystery of what took place on the Cross on that predestined day is understood in greater light.
Temporary Separation
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin (!) that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor. 5:20-21)
Scriptures detail the unthinkable agony Jesus endured during His Crucifixion. And yet something took place that surpasses, if possible, even the deepest imaginations of Jesus’ physical suffering. It is a truth that has yet to be fully understood and is not well taught, if at all, in churches around the world. It can be said that for a temporary moment in time only, the perfect and most holy Lamb who knew no sin, experienced something unprecedented on the Cross.
When the darkness of sin and evil is understood in juxtaposition to GOD’S Light and holiness, a greater revelation of what happened on the Cross dawns on the human mind. And it is this. Darkness cannot coexist with Light as much as sin cannot co-exist with holiness. Scriptures teach that sin is death which is also separation from GOD who is LIFE. And despite Jesus being the exact imprint (I am hearing: Replica) of the FATHER, a temporary veil of separation between FATHER and Son had to have taken place in order to allow redemption to work in the human form. It’s not that the FATHER left HIS Beloved Son alone on the Cross; far from it, their unity and Love are inseparable. It’s that the visible Person of Jesus could no longer behold the invisible PERSON of the FATHER through the darkness of mankind’s sin that was in the process of being redeemed through Him. And with physical human pain, coupled with what could only have been agonizing and blinding separation from His FATHER, our precious Lord cried out: “Father, Father, Why Hath Thou Forsaken Me?”
Permanent Reconciliation
In whose case the god of this world has *blinded* the minds of the unbelieving so that they *might not see* the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, **who is the image of God.** (2 Cor. 4:4)
Praise and rejoice in the Lord! On that fateful day, Jesus dethroned Satan and overturned sin on our behalf through the greatest transference of all by the shedding of His holy and LIFE-giving blood. (Lev. 17:11) Because mankind’s sin caused Jesus to endure temporary separation from His FATHER, His redeeming blood now reconciles exiled, outcast and repentant sinners into a state of unity with HIM. And because mankind’s sin caused the Lord to temporarily lose sight of His FATHER’S presence, His redeeming blood can now bring repentant and sightless sinners into GOD’S presence permanently – eternally. Sin and death had touched the life, the holiness of the Son’s blood and it was destroyed! And that is what Love did for us. Volumes could be written about the sanctifying, healing and redeeming benefits that can flow to mankind because of Jesus’ Crucifixion but is much too extensive to capture in one message.
Seeing the Invisible
The greatest Love of all shows us that sin blinds and separates us from GOD’S invisible presence and truth. But it also importantly brings to our most profound remembrance that during one epic moment in time Amazing Grace stepped up to the plate, to the Cross, through the visible Person of our Beloved Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, once we were blind but now we see because Of Him (Spoken Word). Glory, praise, honor be to the Lord our Holiness. And thanksgiving be to the FATHER, Son and Holy Spirit; together, they are One gift that makes the complete plan of salvation possible. Faithful Believers are infinitely and eternally blessed!
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Eph. 2:8-9)
Keep the Faith.
Suzanne
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