HOW CAN I GIVE YOU UP, O MY SON? THERE IS NO OTHER WAY (Easter Message)
This is a message with an Easter application, one that tries to explore the great difficulty of the Father in heaven giving up the Son to the cross.
PART 1 – THE APPLICATION TO ISRAEL
{{1Timothy 3:16 “By common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”}}
There are 2 great mysteries in the New Testament. One deals with Christ and the Church and this is the other one. In this one the focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ for how can we understand the whole mystery of redemption?
HOW CAN A HOLY GOD EVEN CARE ABOUT A SINFUL AND REBELLIOUS PEOPLE? WHAT IS IT THAT CONNECTS GOD WITH HIS CREATION, AND ISRAEL IN PARTICULAR?
To answer that we go to the book of Exodus and get a very special glimpse at the heart of God. {{Exodus 34:6-7 “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”}} God is compassionate with all the qualities that are noble, yet sin can not be entertained. It must be judged. Sin can have no acceptance; nor can it be overlooked by God.
There was a time when Moses had to address the nation in the desert before they came to Caanan – {{Numbers 32:13-15 “The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed. Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of the LORD against Israel. If you turn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness and you will destroy all these people.”}}
God would destroy them for their sin, yet underlying all of this is a verse of great importance we have to note – {{Deuteronomy 4:31 “for the LORD your God is a compassionate God. He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”}}
The two vital points that we have established to connect God with His people Israel are compassion and His covenant. In spite of rebellion, constant sin, apostasy, and idolatry (that God can not overlook) there are the two great pillars of compassion and the covenant.
HOW DID GOD REACT IN THE MATTER OF ISRAEL’S CONSTANT SIN?
Sin has its reward. It has what is coming to it. It always earns its wages. An annoying tap may leak, may drip, but then it starts to run unbroken. You may use all the force your hand can muster to try to turn it off but it is beyond that. What do you do? You must take more drastic action to fix the problem. Look at these verses from Hosea that tell us of God’s more drastic action when Israel fails to remedy the “leaking tap” - {{Hosea 11:7 “My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none exalts Him at all.” Hosea 13:6-8 “As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, and being satisfied, their heart became proud. Therefore, they forgot Me, so I will be like a lion to them. Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside. I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and I will tear open their chests. There I will also devour them like a lioness, as a wild beast would tear them.”}}
That is strong language but for an apostate people, they will not learn, nor turn away from their wickedness. God would devour them, and would tear into them. What a fearful action that is when creator God has to go to that length. A point of interest is the animals mentioned – lion, bear and leopard. The Lord punished His people through three empires – Babylon, Medo Persia and Greece (Rome later on). In Daniel the lion is Babylon; the bear is Medo Persia and the leopard is Greece.
THE HEART OF GOD
In the above verses we have the results that sin earns, and they are rejection and judgement of a people God loves. However, contained in this book of Hosea is one of the deepest and most profound verses in the entire Bible – {{Hosea 11:8 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me. All My compassions are kindled.”}} It is easy to “read past” this verse and not see the import of it. It is our key verse this morning.
To use a human term, “The heart of God is breaking”. Israel was reprobate, and must be expelled from the land, and there will be great suffering, yet God was in turmoil over it. Just look and consider a few words in the verse. The opening question is, “How can I give you up?” That indicates great reluctance, a heart-rending decision. Then it is put another way – “How can I surrender you?” In other words, how can God pursue a path against His inner deep feelings of compassion?
Then another “How” is asked. Three times God must pursue a course He does not want to take. I can not even slightly fathom the majesty of God. Then God allows us to see that turmoil He was facing. The first is, “My heart is turned over within Me.” Strong’s gives so many slight meanings of the word “turned over” but as I think upon the words it is God’s mind and decisions that is in conflict. One path then another.
The Strong’s explanation for “compassions are kindled” NASB or “compassions grow warm and tender” ESV include many but also this, “be or grow hot, become hot, become emotionally agitated”. I don’t feel qualified enough to try to understand all this but just to leave you with – “the heart of God was breaking for what He had to do, but did not want to do.”
We have a personal God. We have a compassionate Lord and Great High Priest who pleads with great groanings for us. The reprobate people of Israel must be expelled and judged. There was no other way, yet God did not want to do that.
Now comes a great big “INCLUSION” for down the track, yes some 2700 years plus from when Hosea wrote, there is going to be joy before Him, because there is coming a day when Israel will repent and be redeemed, and many sons will find the glory of the Lord. Hosea also speaks of that great time – {{Hosea 2:18-20 “In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety. I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD.”}}
He had to punish Israel and abandon them. He had to surrender them to the fight alone against Assyria who savaged the nation. Yes, God did all that in great emotional turmoil, but it was done in the knowledge of Israel’s future blessing, and that was God’s joy. That was the joy before Him.
How could He put them through all that? Was there another way for Israel? Was there a way where God could spare them? Could not the all-powerful God find another way? Was there another way? Was there any other way? How could God proceed with this? NO, there was no other way.
PART 2 – THE LIKE APPLICATION TO THE LORD ON THE CROSS
Let us move on about 700 years from Hosea to a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane. A prayer of great earnestness, of the greatest solemnity, was being uttered there while the disciples slept. Let us just position ourselves there quietly and listen – {{Matthew 26:39 “and He went a little beyond them and fell on His face and prayed saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, yet not as I will, but as You will.” The cross was to be another judgement against sin, but this time, it would not fall on the nation, but on the individual, a spotless, perfect Man. So intense, and so deep would be the horrors of the cross, that the Lord sought another way. Was there another way? Could another way be found? Could His Father find another way? NO, there was no other way.
WHAT DID LAY BEFORE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS?
We can only understand this as we have it revealed by God through some verses, both from the Old and New Testaments. Before we go any further I want you to recall the key verse in Hosea – {{Hosea 11:8 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me. All My compassions are kindled.”}}
We had a brief look at the heart of God in turmoil, because God knew that the nation was so sinful and so corrupt, and had to face the just judgement and great sorrow, but He did not want to do it. He loved Israel and was churned up about handing them over to their own consequences. We can not understand the eternal God or the infinite will of God. We can only see it in operation and then, only in part.
The whole Godhead was connected in your salvation. We usually only concentrate on Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, but have we thought of the Father’s part? Sometimes it is hard even to divide this up because God is One. I want to consider some verses –
[1]. {{2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”}} The verse teaches us that the Father made the Son to be sin. That is, all our sins were taken and placed upon Him and He became the bearer of sins. This was done on our behalf. What was the reason for it? It was so that we could become the righteousness of God. We were made to be righteous through the cross.
[2]. Matthew 27:45-46 “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour, and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”}} In the darkness over the land no eye was permitted to see the suffering of the Lamb of God as He paid in full the penalty that sin had accumulated. The cry of the Lord about the 9th hour testified that the Father had forsaken the Son, that He was abandoned - maybe right through all those long 3 hours. As Israel, around the time of Hosea was abandoned, so too the Son of God. As the Father was churned up over Israel, so too over the Son.
[3]. {{Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”}} The clear message of this verse is that the Father did not spare the Son but delivered Him up for us all. That almost sounds clinical but I want to take you into an area we have touched upon regarding Israel. I want to take the Hosea verse and just change it a bit – {{“How can I give you up, O My Son? How can I surrender you, O My Son? How can I make you like the judgement? How can I treat you like those forsaken? My heart is turned over within Me. All My compassions are kindled.”}}
Do you see that the Father was affected by this? How could He deliver up His own Son? How could He hand Him over to suffering and judgement? The loving heart of God was conflicted.
[4]. {{Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, Isa 53:5 but He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. Isa 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. Isa 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? Isa 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. Isa 53:10 The LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief. If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”}}
This passage is probably the most graphic about the crucifixion that we have. There we have the suffering of the Lamb of God at the hands of men, and by the actions of the Father, the compassionate God. How the Father must have had great turmoil as He caused the Son to suffer. Was there no other way for man to be righteous and acceptable? Could not another way be found? How could the Father give up the Son, His only Son? We looked at that conflict in Hosea, now again at the cross.
[5]. There is one more mighty verse that for me, explains much about the problem we are trying to solve. {{Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”}} God’s joy for Israel will be through their national conversion in the Great Tribulation. He abandoned this grossly sinful people to captivity and suffering, knowing that the future for them will be glorious.
The motivation for the cross was the joy that lay ahead. The fact that millions would come into salvation and into righteousness, was the incentive that allowed the Lord to endure the cross. I believe the Father, and Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead saw beyond the cross to the redeemed of all eternity. It was the joy that would come out of suffering. The Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross so that He would win His Bride, the glorious Church.
There was no other way that could satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness, and man’s reprobate sinfulness. Could another way be found that could bypass the cross? Any way whatever? The answer is NO.
For this reason, the depth of the sacrifice of Christ is so great, that never will men trample Christ's passion into the ground and not be accountable for it. Neither should the Christian ever think lightly on the sacrifice of Christ that caused such a great churning of heart in the Godhead.
How much we owe our precious Saviour! If it was not for His endurance on the cross we would have continued in the night of sin, and be lost to an eternal hell. Instead, His suffering at Calvary has brought us into freedom and into His marvellous light!
We love you, Lord Jesus.
God bless you all
JESUS SO LOVED ME
It was for me; my terrible sins,
That caused the Lord to die;
To execute God’s justice,
That against sin must cry.
Sin smacked against God’s holiness.
The foulness was intense.
We can’t decipher God’s plan;
He worked through love immense.
For my human mind, it’s too much.
Why Christ the sacrifice?
Surely the guilty must die.
Would that then not suffice?
The only answer I can give,
Is that love conquered sin,
In God’s great eternal plan,
The victory to win.
The innocent for the guilty -
But it is even more,
For Christ, my God, died for me,
To open up the door.
It was the Door who made the way
For God to welcome me.
Unworthy, I know I am,
But worthy though, is He.
He took my place upon the cross,
A perfect Substitute.
I stand and look at that scene;
No excuse – I am mute.
Who can fathom the God of love?
That love that is so deep.
This I know with all my heart –
In gratitude, I weep.
This world has no time for Jesus.
It lives in disregard.
Blackened hearts do not know God -
Please, break those hearts so hard.
Forever, I will love my Lord
For His unreserved love.
Soon in His presence I’ll be,
In joy, with Him above.
Copyright – Ron Ferguson – May be used in Christian ministry with acknowledgement.
30 September 2021. Metre = 8-6-7-6
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
