Credit Where Credit Is Due

Tomorrow I will be helping out by playing a small non-speaking role in "The Last Appeal" a Christian play about men on death row. I will be playing the Lethal Injector Doctor. I realized shortly after I accepted the role that during my one scene I would be executing Jesus Christ. I had a half serious moment of, "hey wait a minute, I'm not sure how I feel about that."

I brushed it off but my thoughts have come back to the subject a few times over the last two weeks. The question arose "how does it feel to know you killed Jesus?" Well that is question for all of us really. Our sins are The Cause of Calvary. So often we distract ourselves with the idea of the evil men who Crucified Jesus. But faith teaches us that we all have sinned and so we each stand in the place of Christ's accusers, jailers, judge and executioners. We all suffer from the bloodlust of sin that cries out, "crucify Him!" because we cannot suffer to look upon the innocence that convicts us. Yet that same mob outrage is echoed by the lost child within that is crying out, "save me, someone please save me!" The prayer of the spirit child and the rage of the convicted crowd is answered by the same act of God...sacrifice. 

And it to this that our attention must turn. Or better, let us look upon the eternal foundation of that sacrifice, which is love. Our sins may have been the impetus behind the cross but its true motivation has always been the unshakeable Love of God toward us. For He did not wash His hands of us. He did not choose to begin again with some new more amenable version of creation. He chose redemption. For love by its very nature is redemptive. So in a sense He chose to be wholly Himself. Holy in Himself. To redeem. Whatever the cost. Even death. 

We give ourselves too much credit, then when we torture ourselves over our sins even after we know His Grace. Conviction is good to bring about repentance. Repentance is good to bring about humility. But humility must find its end in the Glory and Delight of The Lord or redemption goes unfinished. Redemption is not just the payment of a price, but the restoration of a relationship with God. 

Too often we linger in the magnification of our sins. It is easy to do. We continue to sin not because we are not saved, but because He is still working in us toward perfection. So we must be constantly reminded of our salvation just to keep ourselves unstuck from the mire of depression and self recrimination.  

We are thus before His throne. Prostrate upon the ground. Face in the dust, eyes shut tight in unworthiness. He lifts us up, and taking our face in His hands, He covers us with kisses. He sings, "open thine eyes my darling! You are mine once more. You are forgiven." And we hesistate still to open our eyes even though His hands are strong, His kisses are tender, His breath is sweet and His song fills us with Joy. Why? Because we are so overwhelmed by our sinful unworthiness that we see only the darkness. 

 

Let us open our eyes then and look upon the Face of Love. The smile so pure that it cleanses us continually, The eyes so full of Love that we are filled again and again not with our brokenness but with His worthiness and healing. Only then do we give credit where credit is due. The Cross was not an act of murder but one of everlasting Love.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:19
We love Him because He first loved us.