Lent Book: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/an-ocean-of-grace
My jottings:
(Comments welcome)
Ocean of Grace (20): MONDAY – A Happy Exchange (p71ff)
It might do us good to dwell afresh on the happiness of the gospel, the goodness of the good news, the joy and wonder and blessedness of these glad tidings for us. Christianity really is the best news in the world ever – news worth sharing.
For us, the exchange of the cross is happy. That seems too weak a way to put it. When we think about it we want to cry out, “Oh, happy exchange!” Jesus gets our sin and death and we get his righteousness and life. He becomes poor that we might become rich. He becomes a slave and a pauper and we are set free as princes and princesses. Here is a salvation to sing and shout about! Even middle class middle aged Englishmen might be tempted to dance by so happy a gospel.
Of course the cross was unspeakable sorrow and agony for Christ. But the Bible tells us he went to it for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). We must reckon on the horror of Gethsemane and Golgotha, but Christ also looked beyond it to the happy outcome of all his suffering and grief.
Even as he died as our sin-bearer, Jesus delighted to obey his Father and to win his people. Love for God and for you and me drove him to go to the cross willingly, rejoicing, even, not in the pain of it, but in the happy fruit which it would produce.
Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but as God he was also the ever-blessed Happy One who was anointed with the oil of gladness.
We might have sorrows many and bitter. But can we also see reasons for rejoicing? Do we see the cross as a happy exchange? Pray that God would give you grace to press on faithfully, even if you are suffering, for the joy held out to you in the gospel.
Hymn: Man of Sorrows! What a name
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWOvD06hJqM
Words etc.: https://hymnary.org/text/man_of_sorrows_what_a_name
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