Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends!

Valentine’s day is here. I like the day because it emphasizes the importance of loving our families/friends. I dislike the day because we should love our families/friends everyday, not just one designated day a year. So lets talk about the greatest love, and why/when love is spelled with an “S”. 

I think most Christians know John 3:16-17 by heart, well at least vs 16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Did you notice the part that says “He gave”? It’s pretty easy to say “Jesus died for me, us, everyone, sinners”. But do we really understand what it means? 

The cross was invented approximately 600 years before Christ by the Phoenicians. It was adopted by the Egyptians and then later by the Romans who refined it and used it to execute their worst criminals. 

Crucifixion was the most painful and shameful instrument of execution ever practiced by man. It would typically take between three to seven days to die on the cross. Infections, like gangrene, would form in your hands and feet where the rusty nails had pierced. The nails in the hand were driven through the median nerve causing a searing pain. Plus there was the excruciating pain as every joint of the body felt torn apart. Death ultimately came by suffocation. They could not exhale without raising their body up, but then they would feel the unbearable pain from the nails that had been driven through your heels or feet. They were exposed to the cold at night and the heat of the day as they hung in the shame of total nakedness. No loincloths were provided, no, they were fully exposed to onlookers for the purpose of humiliation and contempt. Rome made it an example to the world. You can read more of the what Roman Scourging was like below in G.W. Target’s description. Keep in mind, besides being beaten, and a crown of thorns being driven into his scalp, Jesus was scourged twice! 

History records that other people have been beaten, scourged  and crucified. Many martyrs have suffered horrible deaths. But there was something totally and radically different with Christ’s crucifixion and death that made it the supreme sacrifice over all other deaths. 

After examining Jesus, Pilate had found no fault in Him. Yet, when he presented Jesus before the chief priests and officers they cried out “crucify Him, crucify Him”.  They said it was because He had broken a law, their law! He had committed blasphemy by claiming to be the Son of God. But of course we know Jesus was indeed the Son of God.  John 19:5-7  “Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!” ⁶ Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” ⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” 

They knew the law of blasphemy required stoning (Leviticus 24:16), which they had tried to do to Jesus previously (John 10:33-34). So why were they calling for His crucifixion – hanging on a “tree”? There was a very important reason to these Jewish leaders.  Notice what Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³ “his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”  

Their hatred was so great that they didn’t simply want Jesus dead, they wanted Him cursed! In their hatred they didn’t understand that prophecy was being fulfilled. Notice Paul’s statement in Galatians 3:13 “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree).”

After Adam’s fall, the curse of sin fell upon this earth (Genesis 3:14-19). To spare us from that curse, and from death, and to defeat it, Christ came and took the curse of sin upon Himself. God made Christ to be a curse for us. He took, and felt, the condemnation of sin, and the guilt of the whole world beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

Jesus knew what was coming. He hoped there was a different way to save us, but there wasn’t. It was more than simply the thought of becoming our sin bearer, but actually experiencing it, that was crushing to Him. In the garden, as He prayed, He began sweating great drops of blood. He was already beginning to die. His capillaries under His skin were beginning to rupture from the stress of taking the sins of the world upon Himself and becoming a curse for us. Notice Luke 22:44  “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  Please also notice His words in Mathew 26:38,39,42  “Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” ³⁹ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”… ⁴² Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 

Mark 15:34  says that just before He died on the cross, Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Though He experienced scourgings and crucifixion, that is not what killed Jesus. He died on the cross, not from the cross. He died from a broken heart. He died because He chose to take the curse of sin upon Himself and lay down His life so you, we, could have eternal life if we will accept it. Sin separates the sinner from God (Isaiah 59:2). In taking your sins and the sins of the world, in becoming a curse, your curse, Jesus experienced something that had never before occurred in all of eternity, a separation in the trinity. He cried out to His Father expressing His feelings of utter abandonment. Its as if He was asking “What has gone wrong with the plan? Why have you abandoned me?”  

Human emotions can sometimes cloud our judgment. In His humanity, at this awful moment, Jesus could not feel the Father’s presence, but He was not abandoned.  I especially like how this writer described it in her book titled “Desire of Ages” (DA): “But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.”  DA 753.1

“Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.”  DA 753.2

“With amazement angels witnessed the Saviour’s despairing agony.”  DA 753.3

“God and His holy angels were beside the cross. The Father was with His Son. Yet His presence was not revealed.… And in that dreadful hour Christ was not to be comforted with the Father’s presence. He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him.”  DA 753.4 

Here are two important facts to notice:  

1) At Calvary, the faith of Jesus was revealed. The faith Revelation 14:12 says God’s final saints will have, they must have. In this moment Christ feels that the offenses of the world’s sins upon Him is too great for the Father to accept His sacrifice. He does not feel the father’s presence with Him any longer. The hope of His own resurrection also flees as that feeling of sin, guilt, and abandonment overwhelms Him. 

Jesus was faced with a choice, save the world or save himself, but He couldn’t do both. In His humanity, burdened with the sin of the world, He could not see beyond the moment. But He still placed His faith into the hands of His Father. In this act He is demonstrating the faith that He can and will give to all who will ask and receive. 

2) At Calvary, the love of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) was revealed. Jesus demonstrated that He loves us more than Himself. He was willing to die eternally without the hope of resurrection so we might have the hope of eternal life. He was willing to be eternally separated from His Father for you and me.  Why could He go to such depths to be our Supreme Sacrifice? 

Because LOVE is spelled with an “S” – love is “Sacrificial”! 

God wants us to remember and “observe His way’s”  Proverbs 23:26  says “My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.”  He wants you to remember how He loves and blesses you:

• Sacrificially
• Spontaneously
• Systematically

God often works incredible miracles to build our faith. But instead of needing to build our faith, wouldn’t it be better if we accepted Jesus’s faith so our faith was at the point where we too could simply choose to be bold and fearless in our faith …. and simply LOVE Him, with these same “S’s”  that He first loved, and continually loves, us with?

1 John 4:16-19  “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.”

2 Corinthians 4:15-16 “For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” 

It is my prayer that you: “May experience and believe the love that God, who is love, has for you. May His perfect and fearless love be perfected in you giving you boldness to live fearlessly for Him in these last days. May you love Him because He first loved you.”

Description of the Roman Scourging: by G.W. Target,  “Watch With Me”.  “A single scourging consisted of 39 excruciating lashes. The scourge itself was a multi-thonged, short handled whip, made of ox-leather, knotted with small knuckle-bones or lead balls, or even bronze hooks made to tear the flesh. He would be stripped naked, jeered at and insulted, hung by his hands from rings in the ceiling or against a wall or spread-eagled around a pillar. And then, thus exposed and vulnerable, he would be flogged back and front by two or more men, chosen for their physical strength, and trained to inflict the most frightening injuries without actually killing. During this flogging, the victim would first be lashed and wealed, then bruised, then the flesh would rise in ragged furrows, then the blood would begin to flow, and then he would be practically cut to pieces by the incessant blows on the arms, shoulders, back, kidney areas, buttocks, thighs, legs, the soft flesh of the belly and loins; the skin torn away in jags and strips, the ribs flayed, and even the bowels laid open – blow on blow, until he hung, one wound.”