My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 61 - Sunday, February 05, 2012, 4:26 PM
The Wonders of Redemption
“Living He loved me, dying He saved me,
Buried He carried my sins far away;
Rising He justified freely forever,
One day He’s coming, O glorious day!”
In this song the major components of Jesus’ mission to earth are broken down or analyzed. Jesus did not come to earth on a whim; God never does anything on a mere fancy, particularly His world (not to say, cosmos-) changing mission to effect redemption for all men and to bring His entire Creation back into what He had originally intended it to be. If you have never before seen the love, wisdom and power of God flash forth in its full glory, behold it now as we study the lines of this song:
Living He Loved Me
The life Jesus lived among men was one long pilgrimage of love. Many times the people He loved and wanted to save tried His longsuffering love. Many times they blasphemously denied His divine assignment, twisted His words and rejected Jesus before He ever neared Gethsemane or Calvary, which were the high points of His suffering in this life.
Before Jesus could die for us, He first had to live for us in order to give that sinless life in exchange for our tawdry, ragged ones. But His life was not, in a carnal sense, an endless delight. It is true He had peace and joy from His Father to sustain Him, but so do we, yet our life is not so enjoyable that we are loath to leave it. Furthermore you can discard the notion that Jesus’ life was much like ours: 1) He carried the ghastly knowledge of what lay ahead of him; 2) Jesus was not permitted the companionship of a wife and the joys of a normal family life. He had a family, yes. His twelve closest followers were His family – and they could be a petty, contentious group. Jesus had the responsibility of teaching them, by precept and by living example, what it meant to be children of God. There are at least three examples in Scripture of how they disappointed Him at times. Of course there were many more examples that could not be included. It would not be possible to include every significant instance of the disciples’ petty foibles and prejudices in any one package.
And we must not ignore the teaching in the Law under which Jesus lived that demanded full penalty for any offense against one’s brother: Jesus had to precisely fulfill the penalties imposed on sinful mankind for their offenses against a righteous God. That was an impossible task, but Jesus bared His back to the lash of divine justice – and not once did He complain. It was not fair, it was not a just pin our eyes, but an overwhelming surge of LOVE compelled Him to do it.
Under the Old Testament Law if a man smote his brother so that the brother lost an eye, the guilty party had to have his eye gouged out. It was the same with any part of the body: what the perpetrator did to the victim, the same must be inflicted on the perpetrator.
The Law was a look into the Person of God and, by a close examination of the Law, we see that all the offenses we have committed against God must be inflicted on us – and we would still not have forgiveness of our sins. The penalty would have been paid, but the sin would still be on our record. As we learn in the Law and as the New Testament writer of Hebrews reminds us,
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission [of sins].” (Heb 9:22 KJV)
God in the Person of Jesus Christ shed the atoning blood for all mankind.
Dying He Saved Me
It is a remarkable fact that the human Jesus carried full knowledge – at least from the start of His public ministry – that He would 1) suffer much in the Garden of Gethsemane, 2) die in agony on the cross, and 3) know the torments of hell after He died because the Father had rejected Him.
All of it, the pain and agony and death on Calvary, were a fulfilling of the Old Testament Law. In fact the Law was a picture of the awesome duties and the immaculate Person of Jesus.
Buried He Carried My Sins Far Away
In the burial of Jesus we see the hope and promise that our sins were buried deep and completely forgotten as viable marks against us. No more can anyone, man or devil, accuse believers in Christ of the “smallest” of sins: they are all under the blood of Jesus and will never be held against us.
Rising He Justified
“…freely [and] forever.” It is as though we had never sinned in our lives previously and from henceforth!
The redemption of mankind in reality is one astounding, incredible feat that embraces 1) Jesus’ life – living He loved me – 2) His death – dying He saved me – His death symbolizing the death of our sinful nature – 3) buried He carried my sins far away – and 4) His resurrection – rising He justified. The song quoted does not include Jesus’ nativity nor His ascension to His Father, but that is also part of the redemption package. It would be difficult to include a full portrayal of every significant detail of Redemption in any one handy parcel. The glory and love and power would burst the package at the seams.
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