Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash
Yesterday was Easter Sunday. What a powerful illustration of GOD’s embrace of His people. Could you ask for a better example? He showed His love for us by dying for us so we could be free of sin. There was no other way to deal with our hopeless situation.
Watching a loved one fail physically and/or mentally gives us a window into what GOD saw happening to us. He had to intervene. That is why Jesus came to earth.
Many of my readers feel that they are in a hopeless situation as they care for someone who is unable to care for themselves. Often, they have dementia which makes it more difficult. Some days go better than others. But there is a lot of serving involved, as well as putting aside our personal preferences. We want to get out and enjoy ourselves and sometimes we can’t because the person we are caring for needs to be watched and cared for.
Most of us have not had to have our own lives on the line to meet the needs of our loved one, but there is often added stress involved. It is also linked to grief as we watch our loved one fade away from the person we knew to the person they have become with their poor health and/or dementia…or whatever the condition is. We often have times we feel alone or invisible.
Jesus left the glory of heaven for a life here on earth. Why?
So He could die for us and so we would be able to know Him!
Jesus left the glory of heaven for a life here on earth. Why? So He could die for us and so we would be able to know Him! #frominvisibletoembraced, #marthagrimmbrady, #embracedbyJesus Share on X
At Easter, we are reminded again of GOD’s love for us. He sent His Son in human form to live among us. He understood what it was like to be human. Jesus was fully human. But He was also fully GOD. It didn’t make Him immune from the feelings of a human being. But He was able to not sin. That is something we humans couldn’t do because of the Fall. Jesus lived His life here on earth without sinning one time. Never did He sin in thought, word or deed for 33 years.
It’s hard to even imagine what that must have been like. He was always honest. Never once was He hypocritical. He never was devious or shaded the truth. He always loved. Always. He was never jealous. He was always able to reach out to people in need of His encouragement. He was able to embrace people, if not in reality, He certainly did it with His words and His kindness. And it was always genuine, never fake or with ulterior motives. Everything He did was for the glory of His heavenly Father!
Jesus finished the work He came to do on earth. His final embrace of humankind was there on the cross when He died as a sacrifice for our sin.
He rose from the dead to show us He won the victory over sin and death! The job was complete!
But most of all, beyond his kindness and love. Beyond His willingness to die for us, He was willing to deal with the consequences of our sin that started in the Garden of Eden when we humans rebelled against GOD and his basic laws then. He bowed in submission to the will of His Father and died on the cross for us. In one moment, He could have called for legions of angels to rescue Him. But He knew the Father’s will, and His too, was that He pay for the sin of the world. That those who would come to Him in repentance would be saved. And that is what has happened as a result of His death
His resurrection has proved He won the victory over death and sin! It put aside every question about whether He was victor over sin and death. Yes, He was. Because He rose from the dead! That sealed the truth. That was when He was able to fill in all the blanks for people who didn’t understand what happened. He was out in public after He rose from the dead. He spoke to as many as 500 people as well as smaller groups of the disciples.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Philippians 2:5-11 ESV
