For the love of you
Martha Olawale
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,” Hebrews 12:2.
The cross we get to celebrate today, adorned on our necks and beautifying our walls, came at a cost worth more than eternity from its beginning to its end. It cost God, God, and took Heaven to lead us back to Heaven! To reconcile humanity back to the Edenic intent, the creator of the universe left majesty to live like a man and die in the cruel hands of the people He came to save. If you want to know what love is, remember what Christ did on the cross and enjoy the beauty of perfect love, wrapped in grace and glory. 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The journey to Golgotha was not a ride to the park because you don’t endure something you enjoy. The price for our salvation came at a cost and the greatest sacrifice known to humanity. Christ endured the burden of the cross and died that we may live (2 Corinthians 5:15). Every step from The Garden of Gethsemane brought unimaginable pain, and Jesus felt it all. He felt the blistering pain of each stroke of the whip on His body as they tore through Him, and oh, that old, rugged cross on His broken body came with a weight no one but Him could bear. And, for the love of you, He endured them all.
No love known to mankind compares to the love of Christ. Despite our faulty, erroneous nature, He chose to endure the torture, humiliation, torment, and eventual crucifixion by people He made. He didn’t have to, but He did it anyway. He had a choice to back out or to stay on the course, and he chose to stay for the love of you. He said to Peter in Matthew 26:53, “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?”
He knew all of you, your past, present, and future, with all the messes that come with it, yet He gave all of Himself for you. The Bible says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down His life for His friends,” John 15:13. He endured the cross for your shame; He endured the cross for pain; He endured the cross for your tears; He endured the cross for your soul; He endured the cross that you may have life and have it more abundantly. His life paid the ransom for our salvation, so we can know Him, enjoy Him, and live for Him.
“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28
