39He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
40He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Jesus took the cross for us.
He didn't have to, but He was able to endure it because He loved us.
God Himself came down in the flesh and died on the cross for our sins.
Let's reflect upon calvary.
The cross wasn't a place of great victory, as is so falsely preached, it was the resurrection that was the place of victory. (We don't have victory over our sins until we have the Holy Ghost, we're just forgiven and remissed of them before that, but that's for another blog). So it was on the cross, that the greatest suffering ever known to man was dished out. James Macdonald said "Mel Gibson's passion of the Christ, as brutal as it was, is actually a toned-down version of Christ's suffering." The word excruciating actually comes from the Latin word meaning "out of the cross". On the cross Jesus felt physical anguish. The Bible says He was marred worse than any man. That doesn't mean he got beat up really bad, it means He was so marred that you couldn't even recognize his face, it didn't even look like the face of a man. Most people were not to be flogged and then crucified, the majority of prisoners died at the whipping post. He was whipped with the cat of 9 tails. A leather whip with 9 strands of leather coming off of it. Each strand was laced with shards of broken glass, chips of broken bones, and other various sharp objects. There were at least 2 soldiers whipping Him, so this means He was getting whipped by 18 strands of leather lined with sharp objects. As they wrapped around him and pulled back they would rip skin off. They would never whip someone 40 times, b/c they were afraid the 40th time would kill him. After that he was forced to carry a cross weighing about 300 pounds up a hill, with thorns poking into his head causing all the blood to rush out of his forehead. Being mocked and spit upon the whole way up, he finally made it to the place where he was to be crucified. Now some say He was tied to the cross and the nails went through His hands, which would be extreme anguish because of how soft the palm of our hand is. Others say the word hand in scripture refers to the whole arm, and history tells us that as Romans crucified, they would drive the nails through the main vain in the wrist. Some believe it was at an angle through the hand passing through the carpal tunnel. Either way it sounds excruciating. As he was left there to hang His cause of death could have been that He literally drowned in His own blood, as some theorys state the crucified 's lungs would fill up with blood. Some theorys state that you would literally die from exhaustion. Others say that those on the cross would die of dehydration, or some believe Jesus died of sepsis following infection caused by the scourging. Either way, he endured excruciating pain for our sins.
The worst pain of the cross however was not physical, it was spiritual. Jesus took all our sins upon himself. The sins of the WHOLE WORLD! He cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?". When Jesus who was God manifest in the flesh became our sin, God who hates sin had to leave Him, or He could not die. Jesus who was God manifest in the flesh could not die, until He became sin, and God did leave Jesus for that moment. Jesus was now 100% man, and He had been God through all eternity, but now was forsaken by His father who was in Him His whole life. The pain of the cross was being completely abandoned and forsaken by God, something nobody else has or ever will experience. Perhaps, just perhaps; Jesus wasn't even a man at the point of His death, He was sin. The Bible says he was made sin who knew no sin. That word made means to be formed into; I think that's why He wasn't even recognizable as a man... He took it all all for our sakes!
I said all that to say this: If you are suffering in any area of your life; maybe you ARE being persecuted for your faith, maybe your finances aren't where they need to be. Maybe you are depressed, or fighting things in this life that are just part of life. Whatever your struggling with; it's because Jesus counted you worthy of Him! To suffer, not even close to how He did. We must remember, Jesus is calling us to suffer! The more we go through, the closer we will be drawn to Him! And that's awesome.
