Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Matthew 26:42 "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."
LOVE AT GETHSEMANE (2)
"You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins," the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21. Joseph and Mary did not choose Jesus' name. God named Him Jesus because that is what He was -- the Savior. All His life He had the weight of that name, knowing that the lives of all the people in the world depended on Him.
What does it take to save someone from sin? Sin is not an enemy that you can overpower or outsmart. You can't come in with guns blazing to defeat sin. Not even Jesus could destroy sin simply by using His almighty power.
Sin is embedded in our soul as part of our fallen nature. If Jesus would have destroyed sin with His power, He would have destroyed us in the process. Jesus came to save us from our sins.
In order to save us from our sins, Jesus had to "become sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He had to "become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). The only way for Jesus to save us from our sin was to drink the cup His Father had given Him. That began with drinking in all the vile poison of every sin from Adam and Eve right down to every lie and feeling of anger and hatred you and I have harbored in our hearts.
The only way to destroy sin without harming us was to take sin on Himself, to let it be connected to His soul and life, then for Him to be killed. Our sin was attached to Him in such a way that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, our sin was nailed to the cross with Him. When Jesus died on the cross, sin was destroyed with Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, sin was left in the grave.
You can see why it took much more than power or skill to save us from sin. It took love -- Wondrous Love. It was pure, unconditional love that moved Jesus to go to such lengths to save us from our sins. By that love, Jesus was willing to drink the cup and endure all the suffering, shame and punishment from God. Love sees our need and takes care of it, even if the cost is extreme.
