Happy Easter!
You might wonder, what is the correlation between these three words? It is sort of an undesirable sandwich as the first and last words (Love and Glory) are endearing and, by definition, are phenomena that the average human wants to really experience. However, all of those words are equally important.
The Holy Spirit, in ministering this, highlighted that these three words should be the hallmark of the life of every believer because these words accurately capture the life of Jesus, the one whose death and resurrection are the reason for the season of Easter.
Why did He come?
LOVE
John 3:16 – For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
A well-known portion of scripture that you’re probably seeing or hearing quoted for the umpteenth time. Jesus came to this earth because of the Father’s Love for all men, for YOU! The fall of man in the garden initiated a process of progressive death (Gen 2:17 – but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.)
However, everything that happened from the fall to the arrival of Jesus was all part of God’s merciful plan to reconcile men to Him. God did not have to reconcile us to Him because He gave Adam a golden opportunity and man blew it but LOVE… For about four thousand years, God orchestrated many events and the lives of many to ensure that this restoration happens.
FOUR THOUSAND YEARS… All for LOVE
And this love did not end with the Father. Jesus throughout his earthly ministry and even right now still expresses this love as He is still interceding for us (Romans 8:34), despite all he has done.
DEATH
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This great love for us that inspired the miracle of reconciliation had a quite unusual component to it – DEATH. For the perfecting of the work, Jesus had to die. John 3:17 says “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” By paying the ultimate price, he took the punishment for all our sins at once. Such a painful death! I strongly recommend that you watch the movie, The Passion of the Christ again, to get a sense of how gruesome, Jesus’ death was. ALL FOR LOVE
Jesus did not have to die! He made that choice… (Matthew 26:39 & 27:50-51 – And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split) The curtain tore, the earth shook, and the rocks split, when He made that choice.
But why choose to die?
GLORY
Hebrews 12:2 – “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
I would let excerpt from the writings of God’s servant, Rick Renner, explain this to you: This verse says Jesus focused on “the joy” that was set before Him as He endured the Cross. Just like a runner focuses on the finish line, like a builder forge ahead to view the completed project, and an author anticipates the last written page of a book, Jesus was looking forward to “the joy” of finishing. I’m sure that as Jesus hung on the Cross, He looked out across eons of time and saw the faces of people who would
be saved because of what He was doing. He saw you; He saw me — but what else did He see that motivated Him to stay faithful to the end?
The word “joy” in Greek has a definite article, which means this wasn’t just joy in general, but it was a specific joy. What was it? The verse goes on to describe that joyous “finish line” that Jesus set His face like flint toward: “…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.” Jesus had His eyes of faith fixed on the empty throne at the right hand of the Father that was reserved for Him once His victory was complete. Upon that throne, all enemies would be His footstool, and He would commence the next part of His high priestly ministry to intercede for everyone who would ever come to Him in time of need (see Hebrews 4:16).
Jesus had His eyes, His heart, His mind — His whole being — fixed on that highly exalted place. That was the joy set before Him. When sin and hell were defeated and Jesus was resurrected, that was the seat of authority He ascended into Heaven to occupy. And ever since that time, from that highly exalted position, Jesus has been serving as Lord of the Church and as the High Priest and Intercessor for every believer.
Oh! What a glorious sight Jesus must have held in His mind all through the trials and his death! Jesus saw something and what He saw was glorious and you are part of what He saw!
WHAT SHOULD YOUR RESPONSE BE?
To His Love? Love
To His Death? Death
That you may see and experience Glory
LOVE
Your salvation is a result of God’s love and as a recipient of that love and its benefits, your response to that love should be love (1 John 4:19 – We love because He first loved us.) And how you do that is defined by God himself, as prescribed in 1 John 4:20-21, 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, John 14:15, and so on.
DEATH
As you respond in love to Him and walk with Him, you will come to realize that it is no easy task to love Him in the way he demands. It is a pathway littered with sacrifices. These sacrifices are the willing choices you must make to ‘die’.
You must ‘die’ to your will & desires, like He did (Luke 22:42 – Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done). He had a desire to live, and rightfully so but the Father’s will was his preoccupation.
You must die to the world and all it offers, like He did. (John 15:16 – Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself; John 14:30 – I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on Me). The world does have some ‘desirable’ offerings for the human soul but to accurately follow Him, you will need to die to them all.
Matthew 16:24 says Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Do not be deceived, life with God is a life of many self-denials. You will even have to deny yourself of lawful things. Again, LIKE HE DID!
GLORY
Rejoice because for all your ‘dying’, there is a reward. There are more than enough stories, told and untold, of men who have towed this path of love and death and have seen and experienced glory that their minds could not have conceived.
Jesus is our perfect example. For all that he endured, He has seen the glorious days where many will come to believe in His sacrifice and be reconciled with God and He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father.
The Apostle Paul said in his valedictory in 2 Timothy 4:6-8,” For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
The Apostle saw a crown! I ask you, what do you see? And if you do not yet see that which is laid before you, I beseech you to go to the Father and ask Him to show you. It is no coincidence that Jesus and Paul saw some things on the other side of their travails on earth. I believe the things they saw were crucial to their desire to die over and again that they may reach the goal.
And on earth, we have seen God honor men of faith who have labored along these lines and have received some glorious earthly reward and many of them have even spoken of similar crowns to that of Paul awaiting them on the last day.
Again, rejoice, for on the other side of your choice to follow Jesus accurately, there is glory. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
BUT WILL YOU CHOOSE THE PATH OF LOVE AND DEATH, THAT YOU MAY SEE THE GLORY?
Happy Easter!