"Forty Day Focus on the Cross" Day Three

Did Jesus HAVE TO walk that road toward the cross?

No. He had a choice too.

Jesus said in John 10:18 (Good News Bible), “No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do." Jesus had a choice. He even said in the Garden of Gethsemane that He had a choice; but He chose to do God’s will, not His own. Jesus chose the cross—the pain, the agony, the ridicule, the sheer torture that awaited Him there—and He also chose to carry your sins and mine, the weight of every sin of every being who has ever lived and wash it away with His own spilled blood.

It could have been different. He could have said, “No, I’m not going to pay for them.” How different everything would be if He had. Lord, thank You it didn’t happen that way.

God could have made this work totally different as well. He has the ability to do everything, He could have chosen differently. He could have said, “Oh well—your life is ruined by sin and that separates us eternally—but forget it. Just come on in.” He COULD have. But that would be so totally against His divine nature. He is a God of love, but He is also a God of justice. God is always fair. Sin costs, and someone, something must pay. God would not be God if He compromised His perfect integrity and His divine nature.

He could have also said, “You know what—you all are messed up, and I don’t want to fix you.” And He could have wadded us up and thrown us out like the clay from a messed-up art project—throw it away and start over. But again that goes against His divine nature. He IS a God of justice, and He is also the God of second chances, the God of mercy and grace and forgiveness and love. Praise the One who loves the unlovable, saves the unsaveable, forgives the unforgivable!

So, now you have a choice. Do you take up your cross and follow Him to Calvary? Do you deny yourself? Do you crucify the old man of sin? Do you put to death the things of this flesh? Do you choose to live this life filled with the abundance that God has in store? Each step takes me higher, each mile gets me closer. The cross pays the price; the tomb leads me Home.

Again, my friends, onward. Face to the cross, our back to the world. Give it all. You know He did.