JC Blog

“Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” ( Hebrews 10:28-31 )

I’ve only seen the movie The Passion of the Christ once. When the film was released I went to the theatre and I watched the horrific portrayal of the crucifixion of Jesus. It was a somber day. But in reality, I know the images of this movie, which are burned into my mind, do not even come close to what Jesus actually experienced; dying a criminal’s death on the cross to redeem me. We cannot even begin to imagine what Jesus went through that day. Isaiah tells us; “his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness” ( Isaiah 52:14 ). It is hard to comprehend the intense suffering our Savior endured.

Isaiah went on to tell us, in perhaps one of the most beautiful passages in scripture, that it was God’s will that Jesus suffer so intensely because the result was the justification of many ( Isaiah 53:10-12 ). He describes what Jesus went through that day. He was pierced, He was stricken and smitten by God, He was oppressed, He was afflicted, He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, He was cut off from the land of the living and He was assigned a grave with the wicked ( Isaiah 53 ) and yet in spite of all these things “He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” ( Isaiah 53:12 ). Jesus went through with this because it meant restoration for us.

In fact, Jesus died for everyone, for those who accept His grace and for those who willingly reject it. He eliminated any barrier in bringing us to God dying for all. Because of this, Jesus has inherited a name that far exceeds any name in existence and He owns a position for eternity far above any other (Philippians 2:9-11, Colossians 1:18, Hebrews 1:4; 2:8). So, imagine how dreadful it is to reject the name and person of Jesus Christ.

We see examples from the Law, anyone who rejected the law died without mercy. How much more severe is rejecting everything the law pointed to. Jesus’ blood was given to cleanse mankind of sin and the guilt associated with it. How dreadful and unforgivable it is to spurn and consider this blood unholy. How outrageous it is to reject the only One who can save. It is a public humiliation of Jesus; it is like crucifying Him over and over again.

The Holy Spirit imparts grace to mankind on behalf of God because of Jesus. He is the one to speak these truths to our hearts and to invite and draw mankind toward this grace. Repeatedly rejecting and denying this grace is an insult in the face of Jesus. How dreadful it will be for those who reject Jesus and trample the Son of God underfoot.

This is why paying attention to the message of Jesus is so very important. He took the punishment reserved for us upon Himself and bore the marks we deserve on His body. He became sin so we could become righteous (II Corinthians 5:21). If there is only one thing in life that matters, it is this; to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so, not only do we escape the wrath of rejecting Jesus, but we gain so much more. We gain eternal life wrapped up securely in our Savior. We experience mercy, grace and love in an endless and wonderful way. We experience restoration at the hand of Jesus in all things. He speaks peace and love over us and there is no fear in death. “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (I John 4:17-18).

Christ's resurrection is the pinnacle of history. It was monumental because it proved once for all that Jesus had complete victory on the cross. Paul records at the end of Romans 4, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" ( Romans 4:25 ). Since he is alive and seated in heaven we can rest assured that we are justified on his behalf before God. His sacrifice for sin restored us to a state where it is just as if we had never sinned in the first place. His death and resurrection completely outdid and undone everything sin ruined.

"For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living" ( Romans 14:9 ). We live for Christ and we die for Christ, and everything in between belongs to him. We are not our own anymore ( Romans 14:8 ). We have been called into a wonderful fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is why Christ came to earth as a ransom for many, to purchase our freedom so that He could be Lord of both the living and dead. The beautiful thing about this, is when we were dead, Christ made us alive. Colossians says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" ( Colossians 2:13-15 ). Now we are alive to live for him in the freedom and victory that was won so long ago.

We know that we will eventually experience physical death, but since Jesus is both Lord of the living and the dead, we know that He is able to make us alive again to live eternally with Him in paradise. What an awesome truth to understand. We live for the Lord, we die in the Lord and throughout our entire lives we belong to Him.  Today, I pray that you understand this amazing truth and start living it out in your daily walk. Remember that everything you do can be done as worship to the Lord. He is our life and our hope. May you be blessed abundantly with all wisdom and understanding, amen.