For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed
is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13
“Crucify Him!” The
screams from the bloodthirsty crowd echoed through the universe and Satan’s
host cheered. Evil had won. Perfection would be silenced forever and humanity
was all his. What neither Satan nor Jesus’ friends realized was that this
moment had already been decreed as part of God’s plan to buy back humanity from
sin’s enslavement. To be stripped bare and nailed to a tree in disgrace was the
worst way to die. God’s law stated that any criminal who was hung on a tree was
under God’s curse. To be crucified meant that even God had turned His back on
you. What made this moment more incredible is that when Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 prophesied
the kind of death Messiah must undergo, crucifixion had not been invented yet.
For Jesus to take
our full punishment upon Himself, He had to experience the curse of God. In those
hours as the Son of God writhed in agony between heaven and earth, He became our
sin. His pure mind had never entertained a dirty, jealous, or hateful thought,
yet it was flooded with every vile, perverted image human beings have entertained.
The perfect hands that had healed lepers and blessed children became the hands
of a pedophile, a murderer, and a thief. As He hung there, the embodiment of
evil, God’s righteous wrath was poured out upon His own Son: “How could you murder babies! How could you
lie steal, cheat, and lust! I cannot look at you!” When Jesus cried out, “It is
finished!” the curse that Adam’s sin brought upon the world was broken. Our
debt was paid. Adam brought sin’s curse through one tree; Jesus broke it
through another tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment