We killed God.
Sometimes I am overcome by the gravity of that fact.
Read it to yourself and marinate on it for a few moments, allow it to really sink in.
We killed God.
And the most amazing thing ever, is that death couldn't hold Him. I love those words, and they mean everything to me "Death couldn't hold you down."
I get goosebumps everytime.
The problem is that until you accept true responsibilty for the roll you played in His death, you will never fully grasp what His ressurection meant for mankind as a whole, and for you personally.
Many of us are under the illusion that the people of the past are responsible for the crucifixation of the Messiah, but that just isn't true. We are all responsible. Each and every one of us have beaten Him savagley with whips, have denied Him multiple times, have betrayed Him for a material reward that was small and insignifigant, have held Him to a cross and hammered the nails in.
We are responsible, and we killed God.
You have to feel the horror in that, you have to feel responsible. You have to know that you played apart in His physical suffering. To deny your role in the crucifixtion, is to deny the entirety of what happened on the cross. To deny it, is to deny Him and the true grace and love He extends towards you.
How many times have you felt like speaking out against something you knew was wrong, but held your tongue instead? How many times have you had lustfull thoughts towards someone who wasn't your spouse? (Singles that applies to you as well.) How many times have you denied your beliefs, in any way, shape, or form? How many times have you been selfish instead of serving? How many times have you spoken ill of someone behind their back? How many times have you dressed a certain way to attract someones attention? How many times have you been rude to someone? How many times have you been unforgiving? How many nights have you spent wishing your life was more...something else? How many times have you been discontent with the season you are in? How many times have you taken your frustrations out on someone you love? How many times have you loved your enemies?
How many times have you sinned? To many to count, we sin every day. Probably hundreds of times every day, and let's face it even if you have a real tangible relationship with Jesus, in which you desire to give Him your everything. Even if you make Jesus the center of your life, you will still sin every single day.
Every
single
day.
We aren't sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
Do you feel horrible about yourself yet? I hope so, the world will tell you "You mess up but you are a GOOD person. No one is perfect, but you are GOOD." Well, I sincerely doubt God looks down at the Earth, at all of the lieing, cheating, rape, murder, molestation, revenge, bitterness, and selfishness and says.."Man! These are a good group of people!"
How many times have you heard something along the lines of "You need to stop looking down on yourself and realize just how amazing you are."
No you don't.
You need to stop looking up at yourself, and realize just how amazing JESUS is.
"It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded in your ways, O house of Israel."
Ezekiel 36:32 ESV (emphasis mine)
Be ashamed and confounded in your ways.
When we realize just how truly sinful and horrible we are we can finally realize the enormity of what happened on that cross. When we understand that we have each hammered those nails, that we each played a part in His crucifixtion...that we killed God.
We can finally see just how deeply God loved the world...
just how far the love of Christ truly extends.
One thing that I've heard recently that opened my eyes to the magnitude of the cross, was that we all need to stop plugging ourselves into the wrong characters in the bible.
We are not the good guys. We are not the heroes and the saviours.
We are the Pharisees, the modern day Judas, the ones who pinned Him to that cross.
And He loved us in the midst of those things, and loves us still.
He looked us in the eye while we plunged the spear into His side and forgave us not only after we sinned, but while we sinned against Him.
And the reason we are washed clean and allowed into the gates of Heaven isn't because we are good people and it isn't because after we accept Jesus we become good people. It is because when God looks at us He doesn't see our disgustingly filthy selves, but the perfection of Christ.
We were made to worship, the question is who and what are we worshipping, because usually it's ourselves. We have to stop turning our mirrors inward and gazing at our own reflections, and start reflecting Jesus.
We have to stop trying to see ourselves as good people, and realize that unless you are nothing, Christ can't be your everything.
Without Jesus there is nothing.
Without Jesus we are nothing.
Anyone who doesn't love Him is walking dead,
For only those who have met Him know what it means to be alive.
