Sometimes Jesus is thought to be the perfect example of how innocence and goodness are roughly treated and killed in this world — sort of the poster child” of cynical proverbs like “Only the good die young” and No good deed goes unpunished”. He is often seen as a weak and helpless martyr in the hands of vile and violent men.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, however. Jesus was the Son of God, who raised the dead, rebuked the winds and the waves, walked on water, and withered a fig tree with a word. Jesus was no helpless martyr; if he had wanted to, He could have snapped His fingers and Jerusalem could’ve been vaporized. So, why didn’t he snap His fingers?

Jesus was on the cross deliberately, out of love for mankind, to give us hope and a future in Heaven.

You see, our spiritual condition is much worse and more dire than most of us realize. Our sins, our disobedience to God is a very serious matter with very serious spiritual (as well as physical) consequences. They cannot just be dismissed or overlooked; to do so would be unjust of God. They must be paid for; but we cannot pay for them without suffering an eternity away from the presence of God, the source of life itself. What Jesus was doing on the cross is paying (in potential) the punishment of the sins of the whole world!

Let me illustrate. Pretend I got myself in serious debt —$10 trillion, a debt so large I could never pay it off in a thousand lifetimes! Happily, however, I have a friend who is a multi-zillionnaire. He takes pity on me and tells me, “Here is a check written to you for $10 trillion. You must take the check, deposit it in your bank account, and write a check to your creditor.” This is what Jesus was doing on the cross — writing a check for us all. Now, what is left for us to do is accept the check, deposit it, and cut a check to our creditor. Grace from first to last.

In spiritual terms this amounts to faith in Jesus, repentance, baptism for forgiveness of sins, and faithful discipleship to the Lord. Grace from first to last.

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