Friday, June 08, 2012,
4:28 p.m. – I sat down to read some communications with friends on my
computer and had just finished writing out a prayer request when the Lord put
the song “Full Release” in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 27:11-51 (will quote selected verses from NIV 1984): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2027&version=NIV1984
Jesus Questioned
Jesus had just been arrested and brought before the chief
priests and elders of the people to be questioned. He was asked about the
charges against him, but he remained silent. He was asked if he was the Christ,
the Son of God, to which he replied, “Yes, it is as you say.” The chief priests
and elders then came to the decision to put Jesus to death. So they handed him
over to Pilate, the governor. The governor asked Jesus if he was king of the
Jews. Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say.” Pilate then asked him, “Don’t you
hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” Jesus gave no answer, “not
even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.”
Now it was the
governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At
that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had
gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you:
Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew it was out of envy that
they had handed Jesus over to him.
Pilate’s wife tried to dissuade him from having anything to
do with “that innocent man,” for she had suffered greatly in a dream because of
him. But the chief priests and elders were persistent in their pursuit of Jesus
and “persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.” The
people all shouted “Crucify him!” when Pilate asked them what he should do with
Jesus. He asked the people what crime Jesus had committed, but they just
shouted “Crucify him!” even louder. So, Pilate washed his hands in front of the
crowd, stating that he was innocent of Jesus’ blood, and that it was now the
responsibility of the people. And, they accepted the responsibility, too, for
they said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” Truly they did not
realize the utter significance of the words they spoke.
The Crucifixion
Pilate, thus, released Barabbas to the people, “but he had
Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.” The governor’s soldiers
stripped Jesus, “put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown
of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt
in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said.” They spit
on him, struck him on the head and they led him away to be crucified. When they
crucified him, they cast lots for and divided up his clothes. Passersby hurled
insults at him. They challenged him to come down from the cross if he was the
Son of God. And, he could have come down. He was/is God!
In the same way the
chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved
others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let
him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God.
Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In
the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on
him.
The Death of Jesus
From the sixth hour
until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour
Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
When some of those
standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of
them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick,
and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s
see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had
cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment the
curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and
the rocks split.
Our Salvation
Jesus didn’t have to go through all of this. He was/is God.
He could have called on his Father in heaven to send angels to rescue him. He could
have avoided his arrest and crucifixion if he wanted to. In fact, he didn’t
even have to come to the earth to be born as a human, and to take on human
flesh. He could have remained in heaven with the Father. Yet, he willingly came
to earth, was born into human flesh, suffered as we suffer, was tempted in all
the same ways we are tempted, yet without sin, and he willingly allowed himself
to be arrested, persecuted, mocked, spit upon, beaten and killed.
So, why did he do this? He did this because he loves us. He
did this in order to become our perfect Lamb sacrifice to take away the sins of
the world. He did this in order to become our faithful, compassionate and
merciful high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. He humbled
himself and became obedient to death on a cross. And, when he died, he took the
sins of the entire world upon him. That was the greatest suffering of all.
Everything else he went through paled by comparison. And, when he was buried
our sins were buried with him. Yet, when he rose from the grave, he conquered
death, hell, Satan and sin so that we could be free from both the penalty of
sin – eternal punishment in hell – and from the control of sin over our daily
lives, so that we could be free to walk in fellowship with our Lord, to love,
serve and obey him all our days.
Ephesians 4:17-24
says: “So I tell you this, and insist
on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the
futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and
separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to
the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given
themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with
a continual lust for more.
You, however, did not
come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by
its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put
on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
This is the crux of the gospel of Christ. This is what it
means to believe in Jesus. The way we are forgiven of our sins, and we are set
free from the penalty of and the control of sin is by turning from our sinful
lifestyles and trusting Jesus Christ with our lives. And, it means choosing to
walk in obedience to him. Yet, it is so much more. Jesus said he came to give
us life and to give it to the full (abundant life). This song expresses the “so
much more”:
Full Release / An
Original Work / April 15, 2012
Walking daily with my
Savior brings me joy.
Loving Father;
precious Jesus;
He’s my Savior and my
Lord.
Gently leads me;
follow Him.
I’ve invited Him
within.
Now abiding in His
presence, oh, what peace.
From my self-life He
has brought me,
By His mercy, full
release.
Hope and comfort,
peace and safety Jesus brings
When I daily bow
before Him;
Obey freely; do His
will.
Follow Him where’er He
leads.
Listen to Him; His
words heed.
Now obeying his words
fully, oh, what love
That He gives me
through salvation,
By His Spirit, from
above.
Loving Father;
precious Jesus, He’s my friend.
With my Savior, by His
Spirit,
I will endure to the
end.
Share the gospel, tell
what’s true.
Witness daily; His
will do.
Tell the world of how
their Savior bled and died.
On a cruel cross He
suffered
So that we might be
alive.
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