Today we celebrate what has been done for us through Christ Jesus. We rejoice that the tomb is empty and we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death.
We have been redeemed and we have been reconciled. Just as Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. (John 19:30) Thanks be to God!
Yet I find myself reflecting back to the events of just a few days ago. The severity and brutality of Good Friday are difficult to shake.
Listening to the Passion of Christ this past Good Friday, we are forced to remember just how painful and humiliating every aspect of the day was for the Son of God. All of which culminated in an unbelievably painful death, stretched out on a cross.
But how? How is it that the Son of God stayed on the cross that day?
It couldn’t have been the nails that the soldiers used. Not knowing that just hours before He had reconnected a man’s severed ear to his head.
It couldn’t have been the nails that kept Jesus on the cross. Not knowing He had raised Lazarus from the dead less than a week ago.
It couldn’t have been the nails that kept Jesus on the cross. Not knowing He could have called upon “more than twelve legions of angels” with a single word. (Matthew 26:53)
No. It wasn’t the nails that kept Him on the cross at Calvary.
It was His incredible love for us.
This Easter Sunday, we celebrate knowing that Jesus endured every aspect of death willingly, because He loves us.
He lived a life that we could never live.
He endured what we could not.
He suffered so that we wouldn’t have too.
He died so that we might live.
Thanks be to God.
It Wasn’t the Nails
Song by Mississippi Mass Choir
It wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross,
He could have come down,
but the whole world would be lost.
The ransom was so high,
only He could pay the cost;
it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross.
Oh it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross,
He could have come down,
but the whole world would be lost.
The ransom was so high,
only He could pay the cost;
it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross.
He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquity,
by His stripes we were healed,
as He hung there at Calvary.
He was lifted up from the earth,
in order to draw all men;
it was love that held Him there
and that same love covers our sins.
Oh it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross,
He could have come down,
but the whole world would be lost.
He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquity,
by His stripes we were healed,
as He hung there at Calvary.
Oh it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross,
He could have come down,
but the whole world would be lost.
For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only Son,
no greater love had been given to anyone.
The Son gave His life for the taking by men;
He had the power to lay it down,
He had the power to take it up again.
Oh it wasn’t the nails that held Him to the cross,
He could have come down,
but the whole world would be lost.
Power
Power, power.