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Years of Preparation

Many of you have been spending a lot of time this Lent season preparing for the most memorable celebrations of the Christian Faith. Jesus Christ willingly and purposefully offered His life an atonement for my sin so that I might have forgiveness of sin and eternal life with God. There is nothing more important in all history than this single event. The part of this event I want to hone in on for a few minutes is that this didn't just happen. It was planned and carried out for centuries past by God. One place in the Old Testament is so good in predicting that this would happen. It is Isaiah 53. The whole chapter contributes but a few verses, in particular, stand out. Let me state this upfront, and I'll get back to it at the end, this was written some 700 years before Christ was born.

Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken and smitten, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

The heart of this tells us that there would be one who would come that would suffer the consequences of our sin. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That is what Good Friday is about. Jesus took our sin upon Himself and died as a willing sacrifice for our sin.

Why would He do that, and how does that make a difference for us? Let's start with the first part of that question. Why would He do it? The Bible tells us that He did that because He loves us. Man was created by God without sin and given the freedom to choose if he would remain that way. He chose to sin, and sin was passed on to all mankind. This is actually, and even before this, the plan for Jesus's intervention started. Because of his love, He gave us a choice, and because of His love, when we made the wrong choice, He provided a way back to Him. John 3:16 tells us, "God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That is the "why."

How then does it make a difference for us? God is a God of justice; it is an attribute of God. He cannot be unjust. God's law is the ultimate law, and when it is violated, there are consequences. He told Adam and Eve in the day that they sinned, they would surely die. That is the consequence. Because God is just, He couldn’t just say “I forgive you” and call it good. Justice requires a consequence or a penalty. So, He did something better than just saying, "I forgive you,” He provided the payment of that sin for you. It was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus paid for your sin. You apply it to your account by believing, or as we say, having faith in Jesus, that this is the real deal. You want Jesus's death to be applied, and you believe that your sin is taken care of through Jesus. Now you can have eternal life with God because you have experienced the forgiveness of sin.

What we celebrate at Easter was never an afterthought. It was God’s plan from the beginning of time, even before Isaiah’s writing, and we see its preparation throughout the many years of the Old Testament. Do you believe? Have you put your complete faith in the historical event of Jesus dying on the cross to pay for your sin?

Pastor Lynn Rettig

Musselshell Community

Bible Church