What Really Held Him There #spiritualwarfare #RTTBROS #Nightlight #goodfriday #Cross

What Really Held Him There

D.A. Carson wrote something that stopped me cold the first time I read it. He said, "It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father's will - and it was his love for sinners like me." (QuoteFancy)

Read that again. Not nails.

Think about that. The One who spoke the universe into existence, the One who calmed the Sea of Galilee with a word, the One who raised Lazarus from the dead - He was not held by iron spikes driven through flesh and bone. He was held by something far stronger than metal.

He was held by love.

In the garden, just hours before, He had prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39)

He knew what was coming. He could have walked away. He could have called ten thousand angels. But He didn't because His love for the Father and His love for us would not let Him go.

I've sat at a lot of bedsides in my work as a hospice chaplain. I've watched people spend their last strength for the ones they love. There's something about love that refuses to quit, even when quitting would be the easier road.

That's what I see at Calvary. Not a victim. A volunteer. Not a man overpowered by soldiers and nails and wood but a Savior who planted His feet in the will of His Father and said, in effect, "I'm not moving. Not until it is finished."

And it was. For you. For me.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, on this Good Friday, help me to see the cross clearly not as something that happened to You, but something You chose, out of love I will spend eternity trying to understand. Thank You. Amen.

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