Orange Moon Wednesday, April 8, 2026 "How Deep the Waters"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe

“How Deep the Waters” 

     

    When the Lord Jesus Christ died for us on the cross of Calvary, a horror occurred so unimaginable that the Bible merely records the fact.  No explanation is provided, nor will one ever be forthcoming.

    "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

     The Apostle Paul does not reference our Lord's bearing of sin, as recorded by the Apostle Peter (I Peter 2:24).  Paul rather declares Christ “made… to be sin.”  Somehow, the Lord Jesus became everything He is not for the purpose of experiencing His Father's wrath against wickedness and evil.  Torrents of Divine fury descended upon the Savior made to “be sin” as the wrath of God raged within His forsaken soul.  From the experience of Jonah, the prophetic voice foreshadows a portion of our Lord's agony:

    "I cried by reason of Mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard Me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest My voice. For Thou hadst cast Me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed Me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over Me. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple. The waters compassed Me about, even to the soul: the depth closed Me round about, the weeds were wrapped about My head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about Me forever" (Jonah 2:2-6).

    What sorrow enveloped the spirit of One who “from everlasting” existed in perfect righteousness, but who became for us the very essence of unrighteousness?  What horrors would such a distortion of heart involve as a Father's love became the wrath of a judge?  We do not and cannot know.  We can only be sure that it happened, and that a long eternity will not suffice to provide understanding of "how deep were the waters crossed... 'ere He found His sheep that was lost" (“The Ninety and Nine” - Elizabeth Clephane).

    A holy proportion resulted from Calvary.  To the degree the Lord Jesus was made to be sin, God freely imputes His righteousness to those who believe. To the degree He was forsaken, we are "accepted in the Beloved."   To the degree His soul was enveloped by the darkest of nights, our spirit dwells in the light of God's countenance.  To the degree our Lord became who and what He was not, we become in Him God's redeemed sons and daughters.  All such grace flows to us from the River of life made possible by our Savior's experience of the deep, the floods, the billows, and the waves of God's wrath poured out upon Him for our sakes.  “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” cried out our Lord in the darkest depths of abandonment and loneliness any conscious being will ever know  (Matthew 27:46).

    We can never begin to fully comprehend our Lord’s suffering.   We can, however, believe.  Moreover, we can seek to increasingly avail ourselves of the gift purchased for us by such sacrifice.  May our Heavenly Father grant much grace of remembrance, and may we increasingly access the life of Christ made possible by a death suffered in far deeper waters than we will ever know...

"Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.  Yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." 

(Isaiah 53:4)

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

(Romans 5:20-21)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.

 (II Corinthians 2:14)

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