Those who sow with tears will reap
With songs of joy. Psalm 126:5

Lord God, before the beginning of time You set Your heart to pursue us. And you are never oblivious to our wickedness but it is because of our wickedness that You set Your heart for Calvary. We should never ever be tired of telling the story of Calvary; O God, let it never be so with us. You knew it all along, Lord, you knew all along that there could never be the story of redemption without Calvary. So, Lord Jesus, You came to die. You came to draw us near unto You. And this is the story You unfold each day, our washing and sanctification. Each day, each minute, our God Lord is performing in us the work of washing and sanctification.

The Fall

The moment we fell from the garden of Eden, God immediately started His plan of redemption for all humanity.

“And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”’ Genesis 3:11-15

From Genesis chapter three, God had His eyes on Calvary. The moment our perfect communion with God was severed by our disobedience, we were cast out of God’s presence. “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24

Since the fall, we could never walk our way back again to God without a sacrifice.

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord . Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:5,7,12-13

The Israelites had to be covered by a lamb without blemish for them to not be destroyed by God’s judgment. Because the truth of the matter is that since our first disobedience towards God, all we have ever deserved is judgment and condemnation.

Remember that before the fall, we lived perfectly in God’s presence: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Genesis 2:7-8,15

After the fall, there had to be a sin offering before being in God’s presence: “and the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. “Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord ’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering.” Leviticus 16:2-3,9

Our sin makes us enemies with God (Colossians 1:21). And since God is holy, once we sinned, without a perfect sacrificial atonement, we would literally be destroyed in God’s presence.

Lehman Strauss writes the following: “To atone for means to make amends. In the Bible atonement is associated with man’s sin. God commanded Israel to set aside one day each year, the tenth day of the seventh month, which He called “the day of atonement” (Leviticus 16:29-30; 23:27-28). The people were to bring a sin offering, an innocent animal sacrifice “whose blood was brought in to make atonement” (Leviticus 16:27). God had said, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11) “. . . and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).”

“Your connection with Calvary is the most important thing about you.” C.H Spurgeon

Then there was Jesus

Jesus. The name that every knee shall bow to.
Jesus. The name that makes the darkness flee.
Jesus. The name that shakes heaven and earth.
Jesus. The name that comforts the whole wide world.

The below words have been leaving me breathless:

“God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-20

I am quite literally awestruck by these words! In Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. 

O Lord, there are truths my heart will never fully comprehend. Thank You for Your glorious gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You God for the life we find in Him.

Jesus is the only answer to our sin. There has never been and will never be an answer but Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ tore the veil that stood between us sinners and God, so that we can always confidently come before God. Jesus Christ is our only path back to God. Someone had to pay for the cost of our sin, the cost of the whole world’s sin; and like we read earlier the sacrifice that had to be given in order to come in front of God had to be without blemish. The sacrifice had to be perfect.

Jesus had to come.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.’” Romans 5:8-11

As sinners, we deserve the wrath of God, and Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God. O God, I pray that I never stop being in awe of Your saving work on the Cross.

Jesus? Thank You for willingly coming to save me. Thank You for willingly coming to save the whole world. Jesus, without the Cross, without Your surrender at Calvary, we would still be utterly lost. Thank You Lord for the price You paid to make us whole. Jesus, please, continuously change us into Your perfect image Lord God.

The Story of Calvary

Jesus
Innocent blood
That was shed to
Redeem the whole creation
Innocent blood
That satisfied the Holiness of God

Calvary’s blood
That cross
Those nails in Jesus’ flesh
He was pierced for
Our transgression
And then there were
These words
It is finished

The veil was torn
It is finished
The penalty of my sin
Was paid for
It is finished
My shame is forever
Covered
It is finished

Jesus
The Son of God’s love
Jesus
Our Lord
Our justification
Before the Father
Jesus our model
Jesus our anchor
Jesus our peace

Jesus
The Word made flesh
The way to the Father
The way to the Father’s heart
The story of Calvary
Was the path God
had to take to our hearts
The path to my heart
And my heart of stone
Once and for all
Would be made flesh
And I could behold my Savior.
Because of Calvary I am alive
Because of Calvary we are alive
And now and forever we are beholding our God.