When we ask the question of what Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished for us, I think this is like trying to contain an elephant with a butterfly net. For the last 2000 years the scope of what the greatest man to ever grace the face of this earth accomplished has been pondered, praised, and ridiculed. Endless songs have been sung and so many books written that the grandest of libraries could not contain them. When Jesus hung on the cross it was the single greatest moment of all human history and I will never forget what He has done for me.
The original intent of God was to have deep relationship with those that He created in His image. Love always gives a choice, because true love is not mechanical. Man was deceived and bought the lie of the enemy and this introduced the disease of sin into this world. Sin was like a virus that was loaded onto a supercomputer that slowly started to infect every sector of the genius machine. With that virus of lies the perfect father and child relationship was severed. The very ones that were created in the Fathers image had settled for less than their potential. Sin took over and gave way to the enemy and spread like a cancer in all the earth. God was so grieved that several hundred years later after the fall, He judged the earth and flooded it to cleanse it from the rampant wickedness that had spread like a virus. But God had a wonderful plan and His name was Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus came to live and die to bring us back to our original intent.
Jesus came to make all things right again. The first step of this journey was to deal with the issue of sin that separates us from a Perfect Father. Blood is the both the literal and symbolic representation of life for without it we cannot live. Jesus gave his body and blood as a great act of Justice to make us right with the Father again. The Father’s righteous judgment against mankind’s sin was transferred upon the perfect one, Jesus Christ. Listen to this promise in the book of Romans “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9 ESV). Bill Johnson states that because of the blood of Jesus “Nothing now separates us from the Father”. He said the only work we have to do is to believe that his perfect life of obedience, fulfillment, and sacrifice was enough to cleanse us of sin and make us righteous, justified, and holy. When He declares us righteous it means that we are in right relationship and right standing with God. This gives us access back into the original relationship and favored position that God had intended for mankind all along. When we come to Jesus and truly know Him, He changes the way we think, act, and live. Repentance means changing the way we think. When we change the way we think we change the way we act. Repentance is the natural outflow when we truly meet our Savior! When we fully repent and our thinking comes into alignment with the finished work of Christ we are positioned to walk in our inheritance.
As if that wasn’t enough, God goes one step further and says that He adopts us as children when we accept Jesus. The scripture declares: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (1John 1:12 NIV). Jesus’ sacrifice allows us to be children of God and we get to share in His inheritance. Listen to what the scriptures say, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6-7 ESV). I think the most precious part of our inheritance as children of God is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Think about it, God places His Spirit inside of us and gives us supernatural gifts that enable us to demonstrate his love. How much more deeper could this divine communion be?
Because we have been made sons and daughters the Holy Spirit can come and dwell within in us. We become a habitation of God. Bill Johnson states that Jesus “performed miracles, signs, and wonders as a man in right relationship with God…not as God”. When talking about the humanity of Jesus the scripture states, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7ESV).The implications of this statement are huge. Bill says that Jesus “chose to live with the same limitations that man would face once He was redeemed” and goes on to say that “He was completely dependent of the power of the Holy Spirit working through him”. This is a magnificent statement when seen in the context of how right we are now with God by faith in Jesus. We can live a life that is dependent on the Holy Spirit and live the same supernatural lifestyle that Jesus did. We have the third person of the Trinity dwelling inside of us and empowering us to be the representatives of Jesus here on earth.
When Jesus died for us stripped away the old virus sin-filled flesh and gave us a new godly nature that is full of the DNA of Christ. The apostle Paul writes to the church and says “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15ESV). We should enjoy union with God that enables us to actually spread the aroma of His nature and love to a world that is dying for it. He has made us a new creation and we are brought back and reconciled into a powerful relationship with Father God. Scripture declares, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18NIV).
When Jesus died he opened the way for a lost race of people to come back home to their original purpose of being in the union of relationship to the Perfect One. Jesus is a hero to all who come to him for he brings us home to the Fathers house. We find that the Fathers heart is our home. He deserves so much honor and praise for His selfless love and His desire to reclaim His people. I am not the same after seeing His face and holding the hand of one who is pure love. What has Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished for me? Everything.
1 comment:
Beautiful!!
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