Never Alone

Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

We cannot fully understand the degree of sorrow that the Lord Jesus bore on the cross for each one of us. He is perfect, He is God, He lived a spotless life and shameless in every aspect. But we rejected Him and He died in our place anyway. Most of us cannot fathom dying in the place of someone else who hates us. But that is what the Lord Jesus did for us.

Jesus had such a close relationship with His Father that it must to have been devastating to experience the rejection of His Father. This is why He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”, (Matt. 27:46b, NKJV). Forsaking someone has the idea of turning your back on someone, leaving them or abandoning them. In order for Christ to experience the judgment that we deserve, the Father needed to turn away from Him. At this point Christ experienced the agony of hell that we deserve. This had to have been the deepest spiritual, emotional, mental and physical hurt ever endured by anyone. But Christ’s love for us and His desire to spend eternity with us was greater than His desire for even His own life. Only this kind of love comes from God. But, it does not end there. The victory lies in the fact that He did not stay in the grave.

When He was raised on the third day, He was raised in newness of life. This is why, when we trust Christ as savior He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. Just as the Father did not leave Him in judgment, even so Jesus will not leave us, if we trust Him. He will be there with us eternally and daily.

After trusting Christ, our natural response should be to give all for His sake. This will probably take sacrifice, but it order to be His disciple we must learn to be like Him. This takes giving of ourselves even when we don’t like the consequences. Jesus said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple”, (Luke 14:33, NKJV). Just remember, He sacrificed a whole lot more for us. So, when it seems that life is not fair or that too much is required of you, remember what Jesus gave up for you and me.

Thoughts, comments, objections, prayer requests.

Daniel A. Smith