I know that during Advent we look forward to the birth of Jesus rather than the Cross, but a startling thought came to me as I was reading last night: Jesus joining in our humanity was as great a sacrifice as Jesus’ death on the Cross.
This paragraph from William Barclay’s The Mind of Jesus, first published in 1960 is what led to this revelation:
The sacrifice begins with the Incarnation. He who was rich for our sakes became poor (II Cor. 8.9). It culminates upon the Cross, for Jesus, having loved his own, loved them to the end (John 13.1). But why the death of Christ? The death of Christ was necessary for this reason - if Jesus in his love had stopped short of the Cross, it would have meant that there was somewhere beyond which the love of God would not go, that there was something beyond which God would not forgive. On the Cross God says to us in Jesus Christ: ‘Nothing - absolutely nothing that you can do - can stop me loving you.’
It cost the life and death of Jesus to tell men what God is like.
1 comment:
funny, i read something today that i had not considered before about advent. every year we CELEBRATE the birth of jesus, we RECEIVE jesus now through the holy spirit and the word, and we HOPE for the return of jesus and shalom for the world.
i never thought of it in terms of past, present and future. thanks for the post.
shalom,
jonathon
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