Saved by Grace

 
(John3:16)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This was the greatest act of Love. But first, why would God do such a thing? Why did He do it? What is it that the world had done to deserve such grace and mercy? The truth is; nothing. People had sinned against God, but there is only one reason that I can give why God did it. That is the love God had for mankind. God loved humanity so much that even when they deserved to die, He chose to save them by sacrificing His only begotten son Jesus.

Why did He love mankind so much? (Genesis1:26) it's because in the beginning when He created the earth and everything in it, when He was about to create a man He said "Let us make man in our image in our likeness" The reason why God loves mankind is because mankind is created in His own image.

But what went wrong between mankind and God that made them to deserve to die? It also began in the garden where mankind sinned against God. They were deceived by the devil because the devil was jealous of the relationship between man and God. That is where a separation between man and God began.

God made way for mankind to ask for forgiveness for their sins (Leviticus 4). Blood of lambs and goats was used for cleansing and offering to God so their sins will be forgiven. Still that blood was not good enough to wash away the sins of man. Then God sent His only son to be the Lamb and be sacrificed in place of all the goats. His blood was to replace that of the goats.

But for Jesus to fulfil that task it was going to come with great suffering and pain. It would cost Him to lay down His life, it would cost Him to shed His blood, it would cost Him give up His Throne and become a man amongst men.

 

Jesus was prepared go through all of that just to save mankind. He was prepared to give up everything for us, to die in our place. Who would do that for you? Nobody but Jesus can and has ever done that for us.

 

 

 

The Crucifixion of Jesus

 

Luke 23

(Verse 1-7)

 

(I)Jesus is on trial before Pilate, and He is falsely accused of perverting the Nation.

(II) Telling people not to pay taxes to Ceaser. Remember, Jesus was the one said pay Ceaser what is due to Him.

(III) For claiming to be a King. Saying He is Christ the king of the Jews. But Pilate found no fault in Him.

But they were the more fierce. In response to that the Jewish leaders became more angry and made noise shouting, and emphasized their accusation that Jesus was a leader of insurrection (running a rebellion against Roman Government). This was a crime that any Roman governor had to be very careful of. The reason why they said that was to make sure that Pilate will have no choice but to find Jesus guilty.

They were still making false accusations against Jesus.

And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod: Pilate remained perplexed and unwilling to make a hard choice for Jesus; so he tried to do nothing - he sends Jesus on to Herod, because Jesus was from Galilee, the area where Herod ruled.

Jesus has a second trial before Herod.

 

Verses 8-12

When Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him: Herod had surely heard much about Jesus, but his only interest was a desire to be amused and entertained; he never took Jesus seriously.

Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing: Jesus saw right through this wretched, shallow man, and has nothing to say to Him. This, the same man who murdered John the Baptist, now regards Jesus as a miracle worker for his own entertainment. Even when others vehemently accused Him, Jesus had nothing to say to Herod.

Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him: This shows what Herod really thought of Jesus. When Jesus refused to entertain him, Herod entertained himself by mistreating Jesus.

 

Third Trial before Pilate

(Verse 18-23)

We find Jesus back before Pilate, still finds no fault in Jesus but afraid to let Him free. Then he chose to chastise Him. This may sound like Pilate suggests a light punishment. But the chastisement he has in mind is not light at all. The Roman custom of scourging was a brutal whipping. The victim of a Roman scourging was tied against a post, and struck with a whip that had bits of glass, sharp rock, and metal tied to the end of leather cords. The whip would be struck at the top and dragged down the back, until the victim’s entire back was a bloody, open wound. Many people died just from this scourging. But if Jesus is an innocent man, why even this? Could we imagine a judge saying, "You’re innocent, so you only need to pay a R10, 000 fine"?

Still the religious leaders would not hear of it, But Pilate believed he had a way for Jesus to escape death. He planned to release Him according to the custom of releasing a prisoner every Passover season.

Pilate figured, "If this man claimed to be king, and was even the slightest bit hostile to Rome, then the crowd will love him. These Jewish leaders don’t want Jesus to go free, but the crowd will sympathize with him." For there was a custom in Rome that during the Passover they must release one prisoner, so he asked the crowed who must we release?

They shouted Release Barabbas, away with this man. The crowd, whom Pilate was convinced would release Jesus, instead condemned Him. Because of this, Pilate found it impossible to go against both the Jewish leaders and the crowd. But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" It is a strange, almost insane scene: a cruel, ruthless Roman governor trying to win the life of a miracle-working Jewish teacher against the strenuous efforts of both the Jewish leaders and the crowd.

We may imagine that many in this crowd had, just a few days before, been crying "Hosanna" to Jesus. But there are always plenty of people who will do whatever the crowd does. So the crowd rejected Jesus and embraced Barabbas, whose name means "son of the father," and who was a terrorist and a murderer.

If anyone should be able to say, "Jesus died for me," it was Barabbas. He knew what it was to have Jesus die on his behalf, the innocent for the guilty.

The Character Barabbas:

We don’t know much about this character, except that he is a leader of insurrection; Murderer: Thief and a Rebel. It’s now Jesus vs Barabbas. The son of a living God vs a crook, thief and a murderer. This is wrong, this a man that deserve to be crucified because of all the crime he’s committed, but Jesus. What has he done but heal, restore, deliver, open blind eyes.

Pilate asks: Who do you want and they say “we want Barabbas”. The Roman soldiers took the keys and released Barabbas from the chains, he walks down the platform.

I can imagine what he was thinking at this point in time. “Yeah, my people love me, I don’t know who this Jesus guy is, but all I know is that my people love me”. He doesn’t think of turning back to Jesus and say: “I owe you everything now that you have set me free”. As Jesus stood there, it was like He’s saying: “its fine Father let them have Barabbas”. Because the father had to treat Jesus like Barabbas so He can treat Barabbas like Jesus. But Barabbas thought it was his people that set him free. No it wasn’t. It was the love from the heavenly father.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The love of God fell upon us. God sent His son for us, even though He knew that some of us will walk away from him.

 

26. As they led Him away. Jesus was not in a very healthy physical appearance. He was weak from the brutal beating, He suffered from a sleepless night, He suffered from an emotional stress of being abandoned by His disciples, He suffered from walking for more than two and a half miles.

Before Jesus took the cross, He was whipped - scourged - as Pilate had earlier promised (I will therefore chastise Him, Luke 23:16). The goal of the scourging was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse and death. "As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin.

Before they led Jesus His clothes were stripped off. Just like all other victims of crucifixion He had to carry the wooden cross. Can you imagine the dry wood to rub against the open wounds on His back? The cross that was carried by Jesus weighed about 300 pounds which is 136 kg twice as much as those who usually was carried by other prisoners, those would weigh around 34 to 57 kg. Why? Because Jesus carried the sins of all humanity. Because of all these, Jesus was weakened and could not carry the cross. And a man called Simon carried it for Him.

As custom one of the Roman soldiers would walk in front of the prisoner with a board written with the crime they committed, and in Jesus it was written this is the King of Jews.

28. As they led Him women mourn for Him and He tells them "Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me, but weep for you and your children" Jesus was saying, do not weep for me, but for those who do not accept me. Because the pain you see me enduring here is not mine, but for you and your children.

Then He says: "For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" Here was saying "if they do this to an innocent man imagine what they would do to the guilty".

34. We find Jesus now being crucified and He cries out "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing" Here we do not hear Jesus telling them that He forgives them, but He is praying for them that crucify Him. Jesus was fulfilling what He said in Matthew 5:44 "pray for your enemies and those who persecute you".

The combination of scourging and crucifixion made death on the cross especially brutal. The victim’s back was first torn open by the scourging, then the clotting blood was ripped open again when the clothes were torn off before crucifixion. The victim was thrown on the ground to fix his hands to the crossbeam, and the wounds on the back were again be torn open and contaminated with dirt. Then, as he hung on the cross, with each breath, the painful wounds on the back scraped against the rough wood of the upright beam and were further aggravated.

When the nail was driven through the wrists, it severed the large median nerve. This stimulated nerve produced excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms, and often gave the victim a claw-like grip in the hands.

Beyond the excruciating pain, the major effect of crucifixion was to inhibit normal breathing. The weight of the body, pulling down on the arms and shoulders, tended to fix the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state, and hindered exhalation. The lack of adequate respiration resulted in severe muscle cramps, which hindered breathing even further. To get a good breath, the victim had to push against the feet, and flex the elbows, pulling from the shoulders. Putting the weight of the body on the feet produced searing pain, and flexing of the elbows twisted the hands hanging on the nails. Lifting the body for a breath also painfully scraped the back against the rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper breath was agonizing, exhausting, and led to a sooner death.

35-38.They mocked Jesus saying if you are the son of God save yourself. (Matthew 4:3) Jesus didn't save Himself not because He could not do it, but because if He did then humanity was never going to be saved, we were never going to be able to see God. Jesus knew His purpose for hanging on that cross. They pierced Him blood came out until water came out, Jesus shed all His blood until there was none left in Him and water came out.

As He bled, His blood was replacing that of the goats, His blood was paying our debt. Jesus suffered a great deal on that cross just to save you and me. He was given sour vinegar to drink which was the wrath of God that was supposed to fall upon us. He took it for us.

He then shouted with a loud voice, in John 19:30 we find what did He say, He said it is finished and He said in to thy hands I commit my spirit. Jesus fulfilled what He said in John 10:18, He was not killed but He laid His Life. The curtain was torn in two from top to bottom.

The curtain was a symbol of separation between man and God. And as it was torn it meant two things.
(I) Man now has direct access to God. (Remember, Jesus said "I am the way and the truth, no one come to the Farther besides me" [John14:6] in other words you must accept Jesus in your life and have access to God. You take Him and you have a way to God.
(II) It symbolizes that God no longer dwells in a Temple. (1John4:15) Anyone who confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he abides in God.

 [Revelations 3:20] Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listen to my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and will at with him and he will eat with me.

Jesus said: he who accepts me accepts the one who sent me. [Matthew 10:40]
It was Love that God had for us; it was the Grace of God that we received on the cross. Jesus didn't have to do it but He did. We are Saved through that Grace and mercy.