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Crucifixion
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Receiving God’s Amazing Grace by Relating with Him through the Lord’s Passover
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
God prescribed a particular day to slaughter a lamb in remembrance of the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. He called this appointed time the LORD’s Passover. Messiah Jesus was crucified the same day the Passover was to be celebrated. He became the permanent sacrificial substitute to redeem mankind from the curse of the law, heal us from the effects of our tendency to sin, and reconcile us back to a right-standing relationship with God.
In this, He fulfilled the prophecy recorded in Isaiah 53:5. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
RELEVANCE
In receiving His love and the work of His crucifixion, we appropriate the punishment He suffered for our sins, which separated us spiritually from God. As we personally identify with the LORD, we also identify with the new life He lives in us by the Holy Spirit, which is the source of our grace in Him. In that grace, we are no longer under the power of the curse of the law.
When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21 I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless. (Galatians 2:20-21 JNT)
Paul celebrated his identification with the LORD’s crucifixion daily in an interesting way. He lived by the phrase, “I die daily.” Such a thought certainly makes it easier to take any curve ball or disappointment that comes your way with grace! It also keeps you humble, and enables you to lift your burdens up to the LORD from a lowly position—one from which He can easily lift you up.
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
Have you fully identified with the LORD’s crucifixion, receiving His total grace for the forgiveness of your sins?
Are there any areas in which you still condemn yourself, and have not fully received His love and grace?
REFERENCES
Romans 6:1-14; Galatians 5:24
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