Orange Moon Cafe Tuesday, March 23, 2021 "There"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"There"

    

       "The Light shineth in darkness" (John 1:5).

       The brightest light that ever shined in this world, or anywhere else, glimmered in the dark blackness of Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God for our sins as He suffered and died on the cross.  There, the being and nature of God shone forth in a glory beyond our every conception and imagining.  Because there, the Son of God died not for His friends, but for His enemies.

      "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:6-10).

      Who is God?  Look upon the cross to find the best answer.  The beloved Son not only bore our sins there.  He was "made to be sin for us" (II Corinthians 5:21).  In the mystery of His sacrifice, the Lord Jesus became everything He was not in order to rescue us from our sins, and to redeem us into being what God made us to be.  What could "made to be sin" have meant in the heart of One so purely and perfectly devoted to righteousness and holiness?  We can never know.  That which we do know, however, is that Calvary tells us that our Lord is loving, gracious, merciful, kind, and self-sacrificial to the degree that when the Scriptures declare "He is good," a door opens into a measureless sanctuary of wonder we can never fully explore.  "The love of Christ… passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  The cross tells us this, or rather, the Christ of the cross who was "the Light of the world before He suffered" (John 9:5).  Even more now, however, He is the light of the heart of God wherein we see why God defined His glory to Moses as His goodness:

     "And He said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee" (Exodus 33:18-19; emphasis added).

    We do well to remember that the brightest Light that ever shined glimmered in the blackest darkness that ever enshrouded a place, and even more, a Heart.  "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).  Yes, there, there on the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus showed us most vividly who God is, and what He does.  A long eternity of "wonders without number" await all who trust in the Christ of the cross (Job 9:10).  We shall see things of which we presently cannot even conceive.  However, we will never see a brighter light than that one that shined at Calvary.  Because there, God most revealed to us us who He is…

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify Thee."

(John 17:1)

Weekly Memory Verse

      As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.

(Psalm 18:30)

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