May 27

God's Plan

Of all the teachings of Jesus, perhaps the hardest for Jesus’ disciples to hear was when He spoke of His impending death. They didn’t want to hear about it. Yet, Jesus knew it was coming, and they had to be prepared.

The fact is that the crucifixion was no surprise to Jesus. He always knew that this was His destiny. It was the reason He came to earth.

It was prophesied about years before. Isaiah 53:3-9 described what would happen in almost perfect detail:

He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth. (ESV)

Still, it is verse 10 that is most striking:

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;” (ESV)

It was God’s will that Jesus was crucified. It was the legendary plan all along.

Jesus came to earth for one purpose: to give His live for the sins of man.

Why was this necessary?

Hebrews 9:22 gives the answer:  “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (ESV)

Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

For humanity to restore its relationship with God, it needed to have its sins forgiven.

So God sent His Son…to suffer….to die a horrendous death…so that our sins could be forgiven.

The One we sinned against..the One our sins offended…created a plan that required enormous sacrifice on His part so that man could be forgiven and restored to Him.

Just as He voluntarily came to earth, Jesus voluntarily submitted to God’s plan so that you and I could experience salvation.

That’s legendary!

Memory Verse:  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV)

New International Version (NIV)

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