The Price of Pardon

One verse of Scripture has always really puzzled and honestly troubled me. I have never quite understood it. Jesus hangs on the cross just minutes from the fact He has completely paid for the sin of the world and suddenly He cries out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) Many believe God turned His back, causing the sun to go dark and moon to go to blood, (Mark 15:33) because He could not look at the sin being heaped on Jesus. THIS has NEVER made any sense to me because God views our sin every single minute of every single day (Isaiah 64:6) and has since the Garden and since the Garden He has been providing us a way to return to Him. (Genesis 3:21) So, why on earth would He turn away from sin? From before creation, this day, this sacrifice has been HIS idea. So, why the “forsaking” of His Son, the One in whom He is well pleased? (Matthew 3:17)

As a daughter, sister, wife, mother, gran, and aunt, I have had times I had to look away. The pain my loved ones were experiencing was just too hard to watch. I have retreated to hide my own tears, to keep from rescuing, to be still and allow the Lord to have His way. Have you been there?

Many years ago, my daughter and I had an accident at the pool. She was learning to swim in deep water, so, I was under the diving board as she gleefully jumped from the board into the deep blue water. I would catch her and give her a push toward the side of the pool. The last jump of the day, instead of just running and jumping as she had been doing, she stopped at the end of the board, bent over and was speaking to me when she lost her balance and fell into the water head first. Her face collided with mine nearly knocking us both out. I was able to find her amid the stars I was seeing and push her to the side and then as my vision cleared, I saw the blood coursing down her face. I hurriedly got us both out of the water to examine, apply ice, and get her to the doctor. As I was tending to her, the lifeguards began attending to me and my own bloody face. A friend loaded us into her car and took us to the doctors office: wringing wet, in bathing suits, barefooted and hair uncombed and filled with blood. As the doctor began to stitch my little one’s face, she was screaming at the top of her lungs: The trauma of the fall, the laceration caused by a forceful impact, the sight of blood, and the pain of injections to numb her face was just too much for a little one. I was holding her down and I dropped my head into the examination table weeping myself. I “turned my face away” because seeing her hurt was so very painful. I felt responsible. My eyes fill with tears anew just remembering. I was unable to comfort her or rescue her. It had to be done…..

This is a ridiculously poor analogy but it underscores love hurts and God is LOVE! (I John 4:8) His precious Son had endured the unspeakable during the preceding twelve hours and He could watch no more. He could not watch Him take His final breath. If He had watched, would He have ended the plan just a minute too soon and left us in death? Would we have let our children suffer to the point of death for the ungrateful, unworthy, unrepentant? I think NOT!

The price of our pardon cost the God of the Universe EVERYTHING! It required every last drop of blood Christ had in His sinless body. (John 19:34) He gave it all. He suffered for me in a way I cannot even fathom. To come to the understanding God the Father loves me enough to allow His Son to endure this in my place is ……………………there is not a word sufficient to describe the gratitude I feel. I do not deserve this kind of love and forgiveness.

It is difficult to watch those you love take their final breath. God created us for life not death. We have eternity stamped into our DNA. I have, as a nurse, observed many a family member turn away because they simply cannot bear to watch life ebb away from the one they love so very much and who has given them learning, love, laughter, and LIFE.

“For God soooooo loved the world that HE GAVE His only begotten Son…….” (John 3:16) The price of our pardon is beyond calculation. But, Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED” which means “paid in full. (John 19:30) This was the price of pardon. “The agony and suffering of Jesus’ cries to His Father on the cross are what make it possible for our own cries to be heard.” And in typical Jewish culture fashion, God rent the veil as if tearing His clothing in “anguish over the death of His one and only Son.” (The Forgotten Jesus by Robby Gallaty) We, those who choose to believe in Christ are the beneficiaries of this profound gift—-this debt eradication. Today, would you count the cost of not believing. Then, I pray in the name of Jesus, the name above every name because He gave, you will choose to believe. (Philippians 2:9-11).

https://youtu.be/CYV7hpD9JTI

https://youtu.be/CYV7hpD9JTI 

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us by Phillips, Craig, and Dean