No wonder Jesus was sweating blood; I would imagine, to Jesus, the separation from His Father may have been worse than the betrayal, beatings, and torture He knew was coming His way; after all, He was with God from the beginning of time as we understand it. (John 1)
In preparation, Jesus prayed, “Not mine, but your will, be done!”
At every moment, Christ had the power to say: Enough! Nope, not doing this, but instead, Christ adhered to His Father’s plan.
Obviously, God’s plan was the only way all people could be saved. Only through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection could we be graced with the opportunity to follow Jesus, keep His commands, and receive the promise of eternal life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus’s sacrifice revealed His immeasurable love for God, for God’s will, and His love for us.
I can’t phantom the emptiness, loneliness, and pain Christ must’ve felt when He cried out, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani,” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
A Hymn says: “I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou giv’n for Me?”
Rhetorically, What do we give of ourselves to God?
Do we set aside time daily for prayer, thanking God for all the continuous blessings seen and unseen? How about the hardships that help us learn to be better disciples of Christ?
Do we respect God’s love enough to do as Christ commanded and remember Him on the first day of every week by reflecting on the Cross, partaking in the bread and fruit of the vine, which represents the body and blood of Christ that was shed for us?
Do we look forward to gathering and worshiping with fellow believers as often as possible, to being with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and being lifted up by their presence as we study and grow together in our understanding of God’s will and plan for us?
Scripture tells us that baptized believers are those who are “In Christ,” and when we are “In Christ,” God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit work in and through us.
Christ told us if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, and He gives us a New Commandment. ‘That we love others as He loved us.’
I love the love that surrounds us all in the Lord.
God First!
Related Scriptures:
Galatians 3:23-29, Philippians 2:13, John 13:34–35, John 17:23, 2nd Corinthians 13:5, Romans 8:10-11, Galatians 5:22-26, Acts 2:38, John 1:1, Matthew 27:46, Acts 20:7, Luke 22:17-20
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