Now it came to pass,
when Jesus had finished
all these things,
that He said to His disciples,
"You know that
after two days is the Passover,
and the Son of Man
will be delivered
to be
crucified."
Then the chief
priests, the scribes,
and the elders of the
people assembled
at the Palace of the
high priest,
who was called
Caiaphas, and plotted
to take Jesus by
trickery and kill him.
But they said,
"Not during the feast,
lest there be an
uproar among the people."
Matthew 26: 1 -- 5
This is not
the first time that Jesus spoke of his suffering although in previous times His suffering seem to be in the distant, and now He speaks of them as at hand. Now the purpose for which Jesus Christ came
was soon to be fulfilled and completed and this completion was to be His
death. In speaking to His disciples at
this time with a prediction of that which He knew what is to be done and that
what was to be done, was for Him to be hung on a stake with nails driven into
his hands and his feet. Maybe this
stake had crossed arms as is so depicted by the cross or a single stake, a pole
design for crucifixion. The form of
that which He was to be nailed to is not important, for what is important is
that God, the Son of God, the Wisdom of God, clothed in the flesh was to die
and pay the debt that no man could pay, a debt that man owed to God. John is his first chapter of the book of
John stated:" In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). We are followers of Jesus Christ,
Christians. We are worshipers of Jesus Christ who is truly God the Word. For a time, while here upon the earth,
although he existed before all time, concealed the signs of His Deity, even
though He was the true God existing before all ages. Jesus Christ the perfect Reason, the Word of God who was begotten
before the light and Who is the creator and together with the Father, the
fashion or of man, he is God who is from God.
Jesus Christ is the Son who is from the father, and He is King for
evermore. Moreover Jesus Christ as the
Firstborn of God, was begotten before anything was created. Jesus Christ is prior to all creation. Jesus Christ was born with a Word, of the
heart of the Father, and before all.
And now the religious leaders who had the Word of God throughout all the
ages, and were even expecting the Messiah to come and to save them, were now
plucking to kill the One they were expecting.
All the signs and wonders that Jesus performed while here on earth meant
nothing to them for they did not want their "applecart" to be
upturned. They wanted things to
continue the way they wanted things to continue. They were going so far as to kill the One that had the power to
save them and God use this plotting, and scheming, accomplish His
purpose. Is this not so often true of
us that we want things to continue the way that it is being done even if that which
is being done is actually in contradiction to Christianity? Do we not often want things to be done our
way? Probably, we've all been there in
some fashion in our lives. But when we
have truly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ we put away those childish things
and turn our hearts and our lives over to the One who has the power to save us
and this He did by His crucifixion upon the cross.
There is a
great risk of saying that the Savior of the human race was only human as do the
heretics who show contempt for our Savior and attack God the Father, as if God
the Father could not beget the Son.
Even nature prescribes that He must be believed to be man who is a
man. Likewise He must be believed to be
God who is God. God, then, proceeded
from God, causing a person second to the Father as being the Son. But He does not deprive the Father of that
characteristic that the Father is one God.
For if the Son had not been born, compared with Him who was unborn, and
the quality would be manifested in both.
So, then, the addition of the son would make two unborn Beings. And this would make two God's. If He had not been a begotten, compared with Him who was not begotten, they would be found equal. If they were both not begotten, this would
have reasonably given two God's. If He
had been performed without beginning, just as we Father, and if He Himself were
the beginning of all things as is the Father, this would have made two
beginnings. Consequently, this would
have demonstrated two gods to us, also.
There was and is only one beginning and Jesus Christ was with the God in
the beginning and was the God of the beginning. He is therefore God, because He was before the world, and held
His glory before the world.
Today, a
day that we call "Good Friday" and a day set aside as a special day
for this is the day that Jesus had prophesied to His disciples, the day that
that prophecy was fulfilled by His crucifixion. These next three days are not days of celebration as is done by
many whereby these days lose their solemnity and in some cases even their
importance. Since the beginning of time
these days are the most important days that has ever occurred or will occur
upon this earth for this is the day that Jesus Christ paid for sin, satisfying
the justice of God. Satisfying His own
justice and thereby making propitiation for sin and salvation to whomever God
saves. Take this time and teach your
children what these days actually mean, and even though there will be such
things as Easter egg hunts, or other celebrations, they must not cloud why we
are celebrating what Jesus Christ has done.
Take time now, to read what has been recorded in the Bible about this
time. Read them to your children, to
your spouse, to yourself, and pray and thank God that He came personally for
his children.
Jesus answered, "You could have no power
at all against Me unless it had
been given
you from above.
Therefore the one who delivered
Me
to you has the greater sin."
John
19:11
He is alive! Your Savior
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