TITLE: Our Road to Paradise By Sandra Carter 03/25/10 |
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When something surprising, fantastic, even glorious occurs, we can say wow.
Wow! Is an eye opener. Wow is what happened on the old rugged Cross! When I think about Jesus and how He died for me, I say Wow!
The old rugged cross held our Saviour. Two pieces of wood held our salvation. Our salvation hung weary, worn, and torn. He hung bleeding and mangled from the scourging of the persecutors. He hung in grief, stricken by our sins, He who had no sin. He hung stretched wide in submission and sacrifice. How His muscles must have ached and burned from exertion. He was weak and fatigued to the point of exhaustion from profuse blood loss. He was battered and bruised. Sweat was mingled with blood and obscured His vision. Then, no longer able to hold His body weight on the cross, breathing became difficult. With His last gasp for breath, His life ended with suffocation and He gave up the ghost. On the cross, two pieces of wood, the Son of God died. There He paid for our sins.
He had taken the long lonely walk to Golgotha. Although followed by a great crowd, the road was still lonely. He was alone in His anguish, grief, and pain. He endured the shame of being spit upon, slapped about, and the sound of cruel words and mocking. They mocked Him for being a King.
He endured an endless mock trial where the verdict was guilty before a word was even spoken. He heard the false witnesses come one after another. His own true words were the reason for His conviction. He denied not the truth of His identity; He was and is the Son of God.
Through all this inhumane treatment and shame, He had to keep one thing on His mind. He was doing this to please His Father. He was doing this to atone for the sins of man to be reconciled back to God. He knew the present state was only temporary. He knew when it was all over He would rise victorious, even glorious. He would have the glory that He had with God the Father before the world began. He knew that what He endured was worth it to save the souls of those who would receive Him and glorify the Father.
His death was a symbol of suffering and shame, but oh how glorious it turned out. It gave us the opportunity to be righteous by faith. His road of scorn allows us to be transformed into to His image and glorify His name. We will have glorified bodies and be caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. We are able to go to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The road He traveled allows us to see the new heaven and new earth, to walk the streets of gold and to be in the New Jerusalem. His long, lonely, weary, and tortuous road was what paved our road to paradise, eternal life in the presence of God Almighty. We will have the privilege to worship and praise Him forever and ever. Amen.
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