On this day more than two thousand years ago, my Savior was arrested, beaten as close to death as possible, nailed to a cross by his hands and feet, hanged there to be mocked and publicly humiliated by the same people who praised him only a week prior, spit on, laughed at, stabbed in the side, and finally breathed his last breath with only a few left by his side when they lowered him from that tree. He paid the ultimate price to welcome sinners into his family. He died a death that should have been mine. He gave his life so mine would be spared. How is it possible that someone loved me so much? It doesn't make any sense that he would come down from his home in heaven to dwell with, befriend, mentor, and die for people who he knew in advance would only betray him. That's grace. Relentless love coupled with redeeming grace. There is nothing you can say about the father, the son, or the holy spirit that doesn't go back to love and grace. We got what we didn't deserve. My heart overwhelmed with thankfulness at just the thought of this being true.
Today, on this cloudy yet beautiful Good Friday, it is my prayer that we would run to him. With our mistakes and our failures and everything that makes us feel inadequate, ready to give them all over to the one who died to free us from them. Jesus died, but that's the not end of the story.
Friday is here, but Sunday is coming! Praise Jesus!
"Your attitude should be the same as hat of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is about every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father."
-Philippians 2:5-11
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