The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Creation and the Cross"
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ offers the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted.
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us how, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Peter 1:18-20).
God knew the price that would be necessary for the redemption of both ourselves and creation before He spoke the first word of bringing all things into existence. Take a moment and ponder such wonder…
… Then, after expressing awed and amazed praise and thanksgiving, consider what such a marvel tells us about our Lord. A "from everlasting" perfect existence as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would be altered forevermore by the necessity of God experiencing grief in the fall of creation, beginning with Lucifer and proceeding to Adam (Genesis 6:6). Ultimately, the rescue from sin and its effects would lead God the Son to a cross, whereupon He would be forsaken by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit as He suffered divine wrath rather than the devotion of "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Never will we know the agony of heart in God that doubtless caused far more pain than the scourge, the thorns, the fists, and the nails. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" cried the Lord Jesus into the darkest of all nights, uttered by the most darkened of all souls (Matthew 27:46).
Again, all this was known from everlasting by the Creator whose handiwork in making all things would require far greater workings of His heart in redeeming all things - "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Yes, the shadow of the cross loomed in God's heart long before it stood in substance upon Mt. Calvary. We have no frame of reference for such a sensibility. "The love of Christ… passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). We have only to be overwhelmed, and to keep ever in heart and mind that God knew creation would necessitate a cross and its dark and bloody hour on which the Son of His eternal love would become the sin of His fiery indignation. "He hath made Him to be sin for us" (II Corinthians 5:21).
A final thought. This consideration may explain one of the most enigmatic of all statements in Scripture…
"In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed" (Exodus 31:17).
How could a Being of infinite power who "fainteth not, neither is weary" require refreshing? (Isaiah 40:28). Certainly not in the sense of power. But perhaps, in the sense of heart. Yes, every word of the most glorious power uttered by God in creation would lead to the words uttered by the Lord Jesus in the most forlorn pain on the cross, "My God, My God, why?…" Our Father knew this, that creation would make necessary the cross. He created nonetheless, at the greatest cost to Himself. We fall to our knees and faces in the wonder of One whose wondrous ways we will never fully know because His wondrous heart and mind will never be fully known...
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."(Romans 11:33-36)
"I will extol Thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts: and I will declare Thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness."
(Psalm 145:1-7)
Weekly Memory Verse
"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
(II Corinthians 4:11).
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