Ocean of Grace (10): FRIDAY – Surpassing Knowledge (p39ff)

 Lent Book: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/an-ocean-of-grace

 

My jottings:

 

(Comments welcome)

 

Ocean of Grace (10): FRIDAY – Surpassing Knowledge (p39ff)

 

Consider God the eternal Son’s pre-incarnate glory with the Father in the bond of the Spirit. Of course its beyond our imagining, but think of their blessedness, their love for one another.

 

In a sense, the Son might have remained in heaven without blame.

 

And now consider the Son’s glorious humiliation.

 

The Son willingly came to be born in a humble backwater amidst the whiff of scandal. He went into exile, fleeing for his life. He lived in obscurity and embraced poverty and homelessness. He was often misunderstood and scorned. His own family thought he was out of his mind. All his friends deserted him. He was beaten and unjustly convicted.

 

He had the right to the praise of all heaven and earth, and yet he willingly bore so many slights and injuries.

 

His death was shameful. The agony was awful. Here was the worst possible death that the might Roman empire could conceive as a deterrent. It was so horrendous as to be reserved for foreigners and slaves. It was unmentionable. To speak of it would put people off their breakfast.

 

And yet many people endured such a death. Perhaps some of them bravely, even if it was unheard of for a man to pray for the forgiveness of those who crucified him!

 

Well might the experienced Centurion in charge of the crucifixion be amazed at the manner of this man’s death because it was unique.

 

Surely the worst thing for Jesus – the thing which made his death unlike any other - was not the nakedness, or the pain, or the mockery, or the isolation but the spiritual agony of the cross. He was paying in his body the price of sin for the countless multitude he was redeeming. In those hours on the cross, he faced many eternities of hell for his elect. He drank the cup of God’s wrath to its dregs for all who would trust in him, finishing up your portion and mine.

 

A lot of nonsense is spoken about the cross. We need to tread carefully on this holy ground. We should not think that the Trinity was ruptured at the cross. God the Son and God the Father have always and will always love one another in the bond of the Spirit. The Father was always well pleased with his beloved Son. This was the Son’s great moment of faithful obedience to the Father, the hour for which he had come. Of course the Father loved the Son as he died in our place.

 

But Jesus the God-Man faced the frown of his Father for you and me. The Father turns his face away. Jesus is forsaken. He took the pain and bore the wrath so that I might stand forgiven at the cross. We cannot imagine what that most have been like for him.

 

We are so forgetful and indifferent to God that the prospect of his absence doesn’t terrify us as it should. And yet for the first time ever at the cross, Jesus, who revelled above all things in the love of his Father, tasted God’s holy displeasure at sin for you and me.

 

Once again, pause to remember that Jesus did all this willingly for you. This is what the love in action of God our Saviour looks like.

 

Take a moment to pray Spurgeon’s final line again.

 

(If you are interested in more things Spurgeon, you might like to take a look at: https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/)   

 

Hymn: From The Squalor of a Borrowed Stable (Immanuel)

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YksTeR61O1I

 

Words etc.: https://www.stuarttownend.co.uk/song/immanuel/