The Cost of Salvation

The father in his sovereignty blotted out the son's light. Now, don't know how that happened. I'm not gonna try to explain that to you scientifically, but that's exactly what happened. And we know that darkness is a symbol of God's judgment. And so in this hour, the father turns his back on the son because the son had the weight of all of our sin, your sin, my sin, the sins of the world placed on him in that very moment. [00:45:08] (35 seconds)  #DarknessOfJudgment

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Jesus? I mean, there you are, you're naked, you're exposed, your clothes, your only belongings have been gambled away, your closest friends are gone, nowhere to be found. Only the disciple John was there with a few women. And there you are, bare naked before the whole world, being insulted time after time. I I wonder if Jesus was tempted to come down and just destroy all of them right there on the spot. I sure would have been. [00:43:14] (32 seconds)  #ExposedAndMocked

So notice that that what Jesus does is he voluntarily refuses pain relief. That wine mixed with myrrh would have been a a sedative to kinda dull his senses, but it was also a pain killer. And so it would have numbed him to the entire crucifixion process both physically and mentally. Yet Jesus denies it, choosing to be fully present for every ounce of suffering that he would endure. [00:38:35] (31 seconds)  #ChosenSuffering

Now when we think of curtain, we think like, you know, drapes that we would hang in our house or something like that. This was not that kind of curtain. This curtain would have been 60 feet tall, it would have gone the width of the temple, and it was at least three to four inches thick. So this is not something that you're cutting with scissors. This is not something that, you know, if you're strong enough, you can just rip apart. This is something that only the hand of God could do. [00:51:25] (25 seconds)  #TornCurtainMiracle

Who do you say that Jesus is? Who do you say he is? The Jews mocked him. They ridiculed him, said his works were of the devil. His disciples fled. In the moment they were gone, the Romans were mostly indifferent, just another criminal to crucify. But the centurion said, this is the son of God. Who do you say Jesus is? Because here's the deal our our world will say well, Jesus was he was a good person. He was a good teacher. [00:55:44] (37 seconds)  #WhoDoYouSayJesus

And understand then that in this moment, yes, Jesus was murdered, but only because he allowed it. He was intentionally surrendering to the will of the father and to the hands of men so that he could pay for the sins of the world. Jesus gave up his life for you and for me. Now we're not done yet because I want you to notice the immediate result, and I think this is pretty powerful. [00:49:45] (37 seconds)  #WillingSacrifice

So as we've looked at the cost of our salvation today, I think there's a couple of questions for us to wrestle with this morning. If this is what it costs to save you, then how could we do anything differently but follow Jesus wholeheartedly? How can we do anything differently but follow him wholeheartedly with our lives? I think the temptation in church is think, oh, wow. Yeah. That's a really good question. Yeah. We should follow him wholeheartedly with our lives. But then we thought start thinking about lunch and the week ahead, and we walk out not changed. So [00:54:01] (44 seconds)  #FollowWholeheartedly

Say God, I I don't know about this whole thing, but I believe Jesus was the son of God. Wanna ask you to forgive me of my sins that I might know you that I might know your peace and your mercy. That you'd lead me in this life. You say that however, you want your own words. That's my challenge to you. [00:58:02] (28 seconds)  #ConfessAndFollow