Here's a powerful thought for you. The Scripture quotes Jesus in John 10:18 as saying, "No man taketh it (His life) from me, but I lay it down myself." Normally when I view this verse I have looked at it from the point of view of God showing His love to us by choosing to lay down His life, and that can certainly be seen. However, if we look a little deeper we can see another aspect of Christ's splendor here.
When Jesus declared that no one could take His life from Him, He was showing His complete power over death. History records that Christ "should have" died on the whipping post. The scourging He underwent was more than enough to kill any normal man. The Roman's actually termed the punishment of scourging as "the half-way death" because when they were finished beating someone, they were half-way to the point of death. Jesus was beaten until his rib cage was exposed and His entrails were hanging out. He should have died...but...it was not time.
Jesus knew He could not accomplish the work of redemption by dying at the whipping post. He declared in John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Jesus knew that He had to get to the cross and die there in order to accomplish the work of redemption. So while He was being beaten on the whipping post, and while He should have died there, He told death, "Back off, I'm not ready yet. I'm not through with my work here", and death had to obey.
Through all of the suffering, the punishment, the abuse, the loss of blood, the extreme trauma to His body, Jesus Christ continued to press on and death had to continue to wait in the shadows because the Master had not yet beckoned it to come.
If we think that the mighty God in flesh was subjected to death by the whim or the choice of the angry mob and the cruel Roman soldiers, we are sadly mistaken. Through it all, death was simply a pawn in the Messiah's hand, and until His blessed and precious work was finished Jesus had no need for death and would not allow it to take Him.
So truly we see, no man took His life. He laid it down when He was good and ready, and three days later, He decided to pick it up again!
Preaching and The Conscience
5 years ago
2 comments:
Its like the friend of mine who - bless his heart - went to see The Passion of the Christ. At the end, when Jesus came out of the tomb, he turned to his sister and said (no lie), "Ah yea, there's gonna be a sequel."
:)
God's not finished. Acts 2 was already in the mind of Christ when he made his way to the cross. WE were already in God's mind when he made his way to the cross.
Death never stood a chance. Great Post Bro. Nolan!
Very funny, what your friend said. In a way, there "will" be a sequel, but it's already being written. The book of Acts is that sequel - the church that was born from Jesus' passion on Calvary!
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