Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this first day of April,
What is the most encouraging, hope-filled thing you’ve ever heard someone say to YOU? Yesterday I left you standing at one of the most significant, HOPELESS scenes in all of human history. It’s a hillside outside Jerusalem and we watched three men crucified! (John 19:16-18) It’s an ugly, horrific, inhumane way for a person to die. Most shocking of all, of course, is that one of those men hanging on a cross that day was Jesus Christ, God the Son in human flesh!!!! Will you join me there again today?
After some time on those crosses, the pain was almost intolerable, and yet one of the two criminals, also crucified that day, was deeply reflective about WHY he was being executed. He was a criminal and he knew it…this was justice for him.
But this man on the center cross, this one whom they called Jesus… from what the criminal had heard, Jesus was a good man, an honorable man, a man who had been helpful and honest. The criminal on the other cross was an angry, resentful man and he mocked Jesus. But this repentant criminal said “We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.“ (Luke 23:40-42)
Jesus’ response to this criminal has been words of great HOPE grasped by dying people all around the world for 2000 years: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) What does it mean my friends? Have those words given you great hope? I call us to consider these things about that brief statement:
First… Jesus is the ONLY being who can make this promise to a sinful human being. WHY? Because Jesus is God the Son, able to offer this sinner and every sinner eternal life in heaven with God! (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
Second… This criminal had no more time. He would be dead within hours. He would never attend a church, never give any money to a church, never be baptized, never take communion, never speak of Jesus to anyone else.
All this criminal had was a few moments to believe in Jesus and ask for God’s mercy! But that is enough with Jesus because our salvation is entirely God’s work in us and entirely by God’s grace! (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9,10; Eph. 2:8,9)
Third… Jesus was identifying the PLACE where both HE and this repentant criminal would be when they died a few minutes later…‘Paradise’.
Apparently ‘paradise’ is the place the souls/spirits of those who have trusted Jesus for their salvation will go at the time of their death. But where is Paradise? Is it a part of heaven? Is it another name for heaven?
I don’t see Biblical clarity on that, but I trust Jesus’ words that this is the wonderful place my soul/spirit will go when I die, because I have trusted Jesus, what about you? Jesus is there now, and so ‘paradise’ is where I want to be! From that ‘paradise’ the souls/spirits of believers in Jesus will be reunited with their resurrected bodies. (1 Thess. 4:13-18)
John tells us a short while later Jesus, becoming dehydrated in His excruciating pain on the cross, cried out “I thirst”. (John 19:28,29) We’ve all experienced thirst, it’s part of being human, isn’t it? Our bodies need water, often. But this cry from Jesus was more than His emaciated body craving hydration.
Do you remember only a few weeks before, there in Jerusalem, Jesus had declared: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this Jesus meant the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Him would later receive…” (John 7:37-39)
Do you see the irony here my friends? Jesus is the living, God sent thirst quencher! And as we receive God’s life changing salvation from our sin; by trusting in Jesus, God places His Holy Spirit within us to be the living thirst quencher in us! (John 14:16,17,26)
The Holy Spirit had been vibrantly empowering Jesus during His earthly ministry, but now, as Jesus hung on this cross paying the sin debt price for all humanity, Jesus was experiencing the weight of our sin, the darkness of our evil. And I believe the Holy Spirit of God was withdrawing from Jesus so Jesus would experience separation from God and that is ‘PERISH’! (2 Peter 3:9)
As the Spirit withdrew from Jesus, who was bearing our sin, Jesus would NOT have Holy Spirit strength sustaining, strengthening Him while He received God’s wrath in justice punishment for the sins of humanity. Pause and ponder the significance of that my friends. Do you remember King David, in the agony of his remorse, had cried out to God: “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me!” (Ps. 51:11)
This is why I believe the next words Jesus cried out from the cross as so significant. Matthew 27:46 says: “About 3 in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Eli, Eli lema sabachtani?’ (which means ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”) Matthew wants us to know Jesus had been on that cross several hours by that time, suffering the most excruciating death imaginable. But Jesus’ words are not a cry of physical torment, but rather a cry of spiritual torment, for Jesus was experiencing separation from God the Father and I believe also God the Holy Spirit.
Our sins, our wickedness which Jesus bore in His atonement death, separated Jesus from God. In fact, Paul wrote some years later: “God made Him who had no sin to become sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21) Do we understand this my friends?
It is one of the most significant Biblical truths for all people of all time. God placed our sin upon Jesus while Jesus was on the cross paying our sin debt price of death. But this verse says our sin permeated Jesus, God the Son, just as our sin nature permeates every part of our being. Jesus was therefore receiving God’s justice wrath for our sin. When we repent of our sin and trust Jesus, God then places the righteousness (holiness) of Jesus upon us! It’s the miracle of our justification by God! (Romans 5)
Oh my, we have so much to think deeply about today and I’m sure your heart will be moved to pray, thanking Jesus for all He has done for you, as Jesus became our atonement sacrifice on that cross. (1 John 2:1,2) ‘Lessons Learned’ notes below will help you further understand this, and a powerful worship song which will call us to Jesus… and I’ll be here, at the cross, waiting for you tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Luke 23:40-43; Matt. 27:45, 46.
Choose below to read or listen.
Luke 23:40-43
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Matt. 27:45, 46
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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