The Most Important Blog I Will Ever Publish

I don't usually post videos on my blog. 

That's because I am rarely at a loss for words. 

Today, I confess that I am. I have written and rewritten a post at least three times. But none of them did this any justice. None of them portrayed what I wanted to share. 

If you have found your way to my blog today, I am going to let Scripture and this dramatic Hollywood interpretation of it speak for itself. Of all the blogs I have written to date and all of those I will write in years to come, none will ever say anything more meaningful and life changing than this. In fact, they can all come back to this one post because THIS is the reason I write. If not for this moment, this man, I would have no life to share with the world and most certainly nothing worth sharing. 

This moment changed history and this moment defines me. It is the center of my life, my heartbeat, my purpose. Every crazy risk I take, every word I ever speak, every breath that I take, it is for the soul purpose of making Jesus Christ known and helping others experience His life changing truth and grace and love. 

It isn't easy to watch. It's rather graphic. 

But this is love in the deepest, truest, purest sense of the word. In fact, this moment in history defines love. This is the greatest love story I will ever know and one that I am compelled to share...

(clip taken from The Passion of the Christ)

"But it was our sins that did that to him,

    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him." -Isaiah 53:5-6

"Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done." -Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion (Luke 22:42)

“All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.” Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?” Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”-Acts 3:36-39

"The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness." -Romans 3:22-26

"Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right." -Romans 5:18-19

"The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. " -1 Corinthians 1:18

 "But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste." 

"Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." -Ephesians 5:2

"God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross." -Colossians 2:13

"...who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame..." -Hebrews 12:2

"This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us." -1 John 3:16

{Let us not be Christ followers only found in large crowds waving branches and laying down cloaks in celebration of the Jesus we have created in our minds, worshipping when it is the popular thing to do...NO. Let us be Christ followers who will follow Him all the way to the foot of His cross, who will gladly carry the cross whenever He turns to set it on our backs. When the rest of the world turns on Him, may we remain. When all hope seems lost may we continue to trust and to rest in every promise He has made.}

And if all of that wasn't enough...after all of the pain and humiliation and the very loss of His life for our sakes, He came out of that grave alive and well and showed us once and for all that He is exactly who He claims to be and that absolutely every promise He makes can be counted upon. He set Himself apart from every other god there ever has been or ever will be. 

For all of this and so much more, I owe Him my life. It will never be enough, but that's the point. It's all I have to give and I will give it gladly for His name. 

"Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!"

-Romans 5:9-11

"Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did."

-Romans 6:6-11