Christ's redemption

Be blessed!
I was thinking about Jesus last night… How he voluntarily left heaven, became totally human, was baptized and anointed with the Holy Spirit, and from that moment on He did everything as an example to us… Taught us how to live and love one another, how to beat the devil at his game and bring other people into the family.
He did that until Thursday night in the garden. At that point He was no longer our example, but our substitute. Everything He did, He did so we wouldn’t have to. Everything He did not do, He didn’t so we would have a right to. Let me explain further…
He suffered worse temptation in the garden than you and I can imagine. What was the temptation? I don’t think it was fear of the upcoming events because He had perfect love, and 1 John 4:18 says there is no fear in love. I could be wrong but I think the hardest temptation was that he knew He had a legal right to stop the process and the authority to say one word, and it would all be over. We would all be doomed to hell, so He resisted to the point of sweating blood. He did this so we would never be tempted beyond our ability. (1 Corinthians 10-13)
Throughout everything He endured, He ‘opened not His mouth’. Remember He was our substitute, so He gave up His legal rights for us.

From the dawn of time, God wanted to be with His kids. Sin separated us, and He was prepared. In Revelation it says Jesus is the ‘lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world’. They already had it worked out in heaven, but it had to happen on earth, too. Starting with Adam, people had to sacrifice animals to cover their sin. Then Noah started the sacrifices again, then God made a blood covenant with Abraham. Then God gave the law through Moses. At this point, the Hebrews made one ‘atonement’ sacrifice each year. God basically let them push their sins forward, blessing them ‘on credit’ based on what Jesus would do.
When Jesus went to the cross, He took all sin- past, present and future. He took the weight of four thousand years of past sin and at least two thousand years of future (to Him) sin. 1 cor. 5:21 says He became sin for us so we could become the righteousness of God in Christ. Because he took and became our sin, we can take and become His righteousness. God sees us through the blood of Jesus, and we look right, clean and lovely. Think about that for a minute… You look good to our Father. Not because of anything you’ve done, but totally because of Jesus on the cross. You look marvelous! J
No person has ever been saved, delivered, healed or blessed by God in any way except through Jesus’ work on the cross and the whipping post. Either looking forward to it or looking back on it. Read that again, because it is big and hard to wrap around. Jesus paid it all, literally. That’s good news, because He did it for us. Now we can have what He bought. Salvation is the biggest and best thing; heaven instead of hell. Real relationship with the Lord! I… Wow! Hallelujah! There’s so much more. To be continued…
I love you all. Rest in the Father’s love today.

healed by His stripes,
Nancy