Have you ever considered the magnificence of God’s grace to you in bringing you to the Lord Jesus Christ and the great riches that are yours?
1 Peter 2:21–24 (ESV) — 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
As Peter is reminding us that as we have been called to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been called to a life of sacrificial service – not just sacrificial service, but sacrificial service to the One Who suffered on our behalf, that you might have eternal life. Considering the great love of Christ in His suffering and laying down His life for us, even as unworthy as we are makes us say with the psalmist, “what shall I render to the Lord?”
Galatians 2:20 (ESV) — 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
1 Timothy 1:15 (ESV) — 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Psalm 116:12 (ESV) — 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?
Christians everywhere owe a great debt of gratitude to God, Who in the eternal covenant purposed this great salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, to which when we consider how underserving we are to receive such blessing yet have been blessed beyond measure, we strive to find words of praise that adequately express our gratitude and love. Consider how God has blessed the church with the answer to the Psalmist’s desire as God inspired Charles Wesley to write the hymn, “And Can It Be.” A hymn that has blessed the church for nearly three centuries
And can it be that I should gain,
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him, to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That thou, my God, should’st die for me?
The Lord Jesus Christ willingly left His place in heaven to step into our world in order to save us from our sins by dying on the cross as our sins were laid upon Him.
Philippians 2:5–8 (ESV) — 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Isaiah 53:6 (ESV) — 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love Divine!
’Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
Amazing love! Amazing but true as we learn in Romans 5. God has set His love on us in rescuing us not based upon any merit we had or would have but while we were sinners, deserving of God’s wrath, God’s love is seen in the fact that Christ died for us so in Him we are reconciled to God.
Romans 5:6–11 (ESV) — 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.
Tis mercy all immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.
This magnificent love is so great that God has taken us out of the pit of being His enemies to experiencing resurrection power in life giving grace.
Ephesians 2:1–5 (ESV) — 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
John 3:1–2 (ESV) — 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Amazing love! How can it be?
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker, Pastor
Christ Community Presbyterian Church
Clearwater, FL
