Our Wonderful Savior (April 5, 2023)

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

When I stand watching a glorious Easter sunrise and rejoicing that my personal Savior Jesus Christ lives, my heart is flooded with gratitude for the sacrifice that my risen LORD made for me. My mind is overwhelmed when I consider the enormity of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection through which believers have been freed from the bondage of our sin and raised with Him to eternal life. I cannot begin to humanly comprehend the physical and mental suffering and shame that the Son of God willingly chose to endure to redeem us of our sins, reconcile us to the righteous heavenly Father, and regenerate us as born-again new creations in Christ. Despite bearing the burden of our sins upon His scourged shoulders and His excruciating pain and isolation on the cross, Jesus counted it a joy to shed His cleansing blood for your sake and mine!

As children and heirs of God, I believe that we will spend eternity seeking to fully understand just how much our salvation cost Jesus, and praising Him for the supreme sacrifice that rescued us from spiritual death and gave us the blessed assurance of everlasting life. Christ’s submission and suffering at Calvary activated the flow of God’s abounding grace that, through faith in our risen LORD, saved us! The unimaginable agony and anguish that Jesus took upon Himself at Calvary gave us access to and acceptance by the heavenly Father through the righteousness of Christ that has been counted as ours. We can be forever thankful that Jesus, our wonderful Savior, loved us so deeply that He did for us what we could not do ourselves—saved our souls and secured for us, by the seal of the Holy Spirit, a heavenly home and an eternal inheritance!

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Romans 8:16-17)