Thanks to Calvary
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniqui-ty of us all.
Well, the Easter Bunny did his job and has gone back to doing whatever Easter bunnies do. I suppose they dye eggs, weave baskets or maybe program their GPS for next Easter egg delivery to all the kids in the world.
What a nice rabbit to bring things to children but, he is also a very smart rabbit, it never cost him anything. Oh, he might get shot at once in a while because of mistaken identity but, he never fails to access our children's heart every year.
The Easter Bunny has always been a likeable little fellow and besides I like him in chocolate flavor.
The one who died for us was buried, resurrected and can access our heart and give us life eternal Bible says He was des-pised, rejected, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Why? Because, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor-rows, wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities..... and with his stripes we are healed
What are we healed of? Peter answers that in 1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Jesus was hated so we could find hope. He was hurt so we could experience healing. Those who knew Him best fled from Him and hid themselves or denied knowing Him. Those Jesus came to save refused to accept Him and their rejection was heart breaking to our Lord. Jesus was described as the kind of person who was despised. People hated Him so much that they could not stand to look at Him. The people watched Jesus and believed that he was being punished for a crime. He was dying the death of a common crim-inal. Jesus endured incredible emotional, physical and spiritual pain for us.
The Lord sought us when we did not seek him. The Lord called us out of darkness. God sent his Son to be our suffering servant to die for our sins and also for the sins of the world. Our suffering servant rose so that we would have eternal life. Jesus also rose for the lives of the world.
Christ was on the cross six hours, hanging between heaven and earth from nine o’clock in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. In the first three hours man did his worst. He insult Him, spit upon Him, nailed Him without mercy to the cross, and then sat down to watch Him die. At twelve o’clock noon, after He had hung there for three hours in agony, God drew a veil over the sun, and darkness covered the earth.
God made His soul an offering for sin. Christ Jesus was treated as sin, for the Bible says that He was made sin for us who knew no sin. If you want to know if God hates sin, look at the cross.
This is not the end of the story. We do not worship a dead Christ....we worship a living One. He not only died, He rose again from the grave in victory. He ascended back into heaven. At this moment He is sitting at God’s right hand.
Praise Him, thank Him, worship Him because He is worthy!
Love in Christ Jesus, Ronnie Miller www.themillersbiblestudy.com
04/12/2012
