But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
Isaiah 52:14
You may have already thought about this…
God wants us to know something really incredible. The Bible tells us Jesus was tempted in all ways like us yet without sin. Wait, Jesus was never tempted with polio, with being divorced, with all the other things that all of mankind has lived with throughout time? He didn’t live with losing a limb in war. He didn’t struggle with being a father, mother or being orphaned, right?
Temptation brings pressure on us. It bears down on our minds, emotions and souls trying to get us to give into the temptation and to sin.
Maybe not in the same exact way, but Jesus has felt every bit as much pressure to give into temptation as anyone ever has. The type of temptation isn’t the issue. The issue is the pressure to give in to sin.
On the cross, Jesus took on Himself the sin of the whole world. All of the temptation and sin that all of mankind would ever experience and give into was downloaded into Jesus’ life as He hung there on the cross. And, it was the supernatural, all-powerful love of God that kept Jesus alive on the cross until the very last sin that would ever be committed by man was placed in Jesus. No other power could have kept Jesus alive like that.
A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.
John 19:29-30
No one can take my (Jesus) life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
John 10:18
No one killed Jesus. Satan can’t claim that victory. The very power of Almighty God kept Jesus alive on the cross – even after He’d been beaten so badly that the Bible records that He was not recognizable as a human being at that point – until “It was finished,” until all of sin, all of that pressure was placed on Him on the cross so it could be forgiven through His blood and death. It had to be this way for God’s plan of victory over the devil and death to be accomplished. At the very second Christ realized the last sin had hit Him, He said, “It is finished” and He gave up the Spirit. Jesus was Lord even over His own death. He is Lord of ALL. Satan didn’t kill Christ. Jesus was in control even to the point of rescuing all of mankind from sin through His timely death.
Satan did all he could to kill Jesus before all of the world’s sins could be placed on Jesus and be forgiven. Much to his dismay, the devil’s plan was foiled.
Truly, we are no longer the slaves of sin. We have been bought with the precious blood of The Lamb of God.
Hallelujah, Father! Thank You, SO MUCH, for the victory you gave us through Jesus’s cross. Thank You, Jesus, for being willing to face the type of cross You bore to make me free!
God bless,
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.