Vital signs- Saturday, November 14th, 2020
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
II Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
Sometimes a storm in your life is what will blow you to the place you are longing to be. — Beth Moore
It’s hard to imagine that Jesus, the Son of God, went through spiritual difficulties. He did. There were two specific times in his life where He was pushed beyond anything that our human minds can fathom.
The Temptation of Jesus
Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life as a normal guy before he began his 3 ½ year public ministry. Before He healed anyone or brought someone back to life, He was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Luke 4:1 tells us that Jesus was
“full of the Holy Spirit”
when he left the Jordan River, and the next sentence says,
“The Spirit led him into the desert.”
What an astounding thought. Knowing what we know about Satan tempting Jesus, it’s hard for our humanity to grasp that God’s Holy Spirit led Jesus there.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and didn’t consume food or drink during that time. The devil was with Jesus, pummeling Him with doubts, attacks, and questions. He offered the Savior of the world opportunities to forego any future hardship. But Jesus didn’t bite. While his physical frame was weak, His spirit was tenacious. The truth from the Scriptures is what He used as a weapon to counterattack His spiritual enemy.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
Shortly before Jesus took His last breath on the cross, He cried out,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God separated Himself from His perfect Son because the past, present, and future sins of the world were heaped upon Jesus on the cross. Because God cannot look upon sin, His intense wrath had to tackle the magnitude of the sin of the world, and He did it once and for all by forsaking His only Son. This would be the only time in all of eternity that God would turn His back on anyone. Because of such an extreme action that left our Savior begging for God’s presence, we’ll never experience loneliness.
Doesn’t that bring you a sense of relief? Even though you may
feel
far from God and
feel
like He’s left you alone, you’re not alone and never will be. When the difficult moments smother us and the hard days ambush us, we stand on this truth.
Ponder the fact that every sin of yours—
past, present, and future
—was placed upon Jesus so you could experience salvation and never fear being forsaken by God.
Really think about it.