His Purpose

Today, being Good Friday, I have been thinking about what Jesus endured on the day He died.  He knew He would have to die a horrible death.  There was no way out of it - unless He chose to not save His creation.  But He couldn't do that.  His love is much bigger than the pain He had to suffer.  He was born for one purpose - to die in order that we could be saved.

Fully God and fully man, Jesus chose to allow Himself to be beaten, to be torn, to be broken.  He endured pain that I, myself, cannot even fathom.  And that was just the physical pain.  He had to carry the burden of all the sins of the world.  The burden of my own sin is heavy enough for me, but He bore everyone's sin on that cross.  From the fall in the Garden of Eden to the end of the world, every sin was layed upon Jesus.  He suffered the guilt and shame as He carried my sin to that cross.  And His own Father had to turn away from Him.  God the Father could not see His Son covered in so much sin.  Jesus BECAME SIN.  God the Father, being perfect, had to forsake God the Son.  Jesus suffered physical, spiritual, and emotional pain for me.

Yet, He still showed His love.  "Forgive them," He said, as He hung on that brutal cross.  Slivers of wood punctured further into his back which was already raw from the bone-tipped whips of the soldiers.  He was unrecognizable.  Thorns pressed further into His forehead.  Large nails held His arms and feet in place.  And He hung there, in agony, barely able to breathe and He still said, "Forgive them..."  This is my God!  He had so much love for me.  He pushed aside the pain and chose to die in my place on that cross.

I deserve that punishment.  I deserve hell.  I am a sinner without excuse.  But Jesus chose to take that sin and bury it.  He chose out of His love for me to endure the punishment Himself so that I wouldn't have to.  Jesus took MY place on that cross.

This was His purpose.  He came, born as a baby, to die.  No one else can say that.  No other god has done that.  Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my God, did.  I can do nothing but live for Him.  That is my purpose - to bring glory to God in all I do.  Do I fulfill that?  Hardly.  I'm still a sinner.  But, because I have chosen to serve God, I am forgiven.  Not because of my good deeds, but because I have let Jesus take the fall for me.

Why is today so "good" then?  Because if Jesus hadn't chosen to die, we would all be headed to hell.  I would go to hell.  It is good that Jesus died.  It was the joy that was set before Him.

His purpose was to die for me.  My purpose is to live for Him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."