Reading, studying, thinking, praying, and contemplating my sinfulness, my weakness, my failures, my struggles in light of this Passion Week; has impacted me once again as to how much I need Jesus. I need his grace, his favor–I cry with Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am undone.” If there is one thing that the Holy Week impresses upon me is my utter weakness to stand before God or to serve him. I need that purging and renewing from the coal off the altar of Isaiah. I need that look given to Peter as Jesus crossed the courtyard while Peter warms his hands by the fire. Oh, did Peter realize that Jesus was doing all that for him? Is that why he went out and wept bitterly? I need to see myself in the healing stripes across his flesh. I need to see my sins in the darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour. And I need to see my perfect Substitute as he cries out “My God, My God…You have deserted me!” I need to see his love in the warmth of words as He gently intoned, “John, behold your mother; woman behold your Son.” I need his compassion as he promises “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” As I am that thief; I am that criminal that he died for. I must fellowship with his cry for refreshment, for “I thirst” too. I thirst for the fullness of satisfaction found only in Jesus Christ. And I must have that forgiveness upon my very soul, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” But mostly, I need to hear that word ring in my heart every day of my life, “Finished!” For what he has begun in me, he will complete in me. O to see myself in the wounds and the words of my Savior that dark day; but greater still, to see my sin the grave…and my spirit to soar with the risen Christ. “He is not here; he is risen just as he said.” If I am alive in Christ, realizing true justification on account of his resurrection, then surely this sin-soaked flesh will be changed and rise again soon. And I reckon that the sufferings of this present life are nothing to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in me.
Paul says in Corinthians that God uses the weak things to confuse the wise. I know this to be true, not just theoretically, but by personal experience. It was in his human weakened condition that Christ accomplished the most impossible task in all of history–the atonement of one death for the sins of many. Yet in the crucifixion, he was never beyond having all power and authority. He gave up his Spirit, no one destroyed him-at just the right time, at the time of the death of the Passover Lamb, he bled out. The cross may seem like chaos, but God, even Christ, was in full control. I need his strength in my weakness, for I am a wretched-weak sinner, but he is a gracious-powerful Savior. I need God’s grace.
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