Wednesday after 2nd Last - A Devotion

  Devotion for Wednesday after 2nd Last 

Jeremiah 37:1-21       Matthew 27:33-56

During Christ's crucifixion, there were those who mocked Him. It goes like this. 

41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. 43 He has trusted in God; let God rescue Him now, if He takes pleasure in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 

They said, "He saved others; He cannot save Himself!" 

They truly did not get it! The Jewish church leaders should have known, they should have been all on board with what God was doing - it was all there, foretold in the Old Testament - but they did not. They had gone so far off the reservation that they had to kill Jesus. They should have known that saving others was the sole purpose for the coming of God's Christ.

Jesus on the cross is what it means to be The Christ! While He had helped and saved others up until this time, His allowing Himself to be crucified is His great work of salvation.

If He had come down from the cross, what would that have done? He had done enough miracles already, His coming down from the cross would have convinced none of them. What is more, it was by remaining upon the cross that He purchases forgiveness, so that those who trust in Him are trusting in God.

On the cross, the heavenly Father is most pleased with the Son, even though, as the Son bears in His own flesh the sins of all mankind, the Father must turn His back on Him - He cannot tolerate the stench of sin. But this is how sinners are saved - the One who knew no sin, became sin, to free sinners from sin. In Christ, the righteousness God's righteousness requires Him to require, is fulfilled.

In baptism, in the Word of Christ proclaimed, in the absolution, and in the Lord's Supper, the righteousness of Christ is dispensed in the forgiveness of sins.

Personally, I am glad Jesus was not as selfish as I probably would have been, had I had the ability, I probably would have saved myself!

Thankfully, Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him (sinners) endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) In so doing, He freed us from sin and death! Yes, thanks be to God indeed!

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