Orange Moon Monday, October 10, 2022 "So Great the Cost"

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

    

               "So Great the Cost"

    The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus the Pharisee, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7).  However, Scripture does not indicate the Lord explained that which would make possible Nicodemus' reception of spiritual life.

   "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again" (Luke 24:7).

  

    The Christ in whom we believe and by whom we have life suffered death to make such grace possible.  He died that Nicodemus might be born again.  He also died for us so that we might live, be it in the new birth of salvation, or in a life of devotion to God after being made alive in Christ.  "He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32).  Nicodemus would have understood this no more than did the disciples, who never comprehended the cross of Calvary until after the resurrection. 

    "Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not" (Luke 9:44-45).

    "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

   God does things in our lives so beautiful and full of grace that He cannot fully explain them to us.  All involved the death of His Son, without which He could not bless us with "the unsearchable riches of Christ" provided through equally unsearchable loss (Ephesians 3:8).  Of course, we know more than did Nicodemus about the sacrifice that resulted in our eternal gain.  We know that the new birth became possible through untold sorrow, suffering, forsakenness, and death.  We know that our Lord was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).  We know He died that we might live.  However, how much do we really understand of Calvary and its cost?  Doubtless, in real terms, precious little.  

    Great light shines in this truth, the illumination of realization regarding how little we actually know of the cost and the loss that purchased our eternal redemption, and everything of God's provision in our lives through His Son. 

So much given, so great the cost,

so terrible the sorrow, so vast the loss.

When on that day at Calvary, 

the Father smote His Son,

when for us He forsook Him

to bleed and die alone…

So much given, so great the cost.

So much given, so much forgiven.

So great the mercy shining in His face

when on that day we first believed,

and in this day as we receive

the grace to live in faithfulness,

the beauty of His holiness…

So much given, so great the cost. 

So much given, of glorious supply,

 grace that cost Him all, His holy, precious life.

For on that day when we believed,

His Spirit entered in.

And in this day when we believe,

He lives in us, we live through Him…

So much given, so great the cost.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

(II Corinthians 8:9)

Weekly Memory Verse    

   For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

(II Corinthians 8:9)

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