Tried With Fire

The cross is not to be thought of as an abstract idea or a religious symbol; the meaning of the cross is what God declares it to mean. The cross was the place where God, by imputation, heaped the sins of his people upon his Son. On that cross there was substitutionary, curse-bearing.  In the language of the apostle Paul, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13), and "He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The cross is not a nebulous, indefinable symbol of self-giving love; on the contrary, the cross is the monumental display of how God can be just and still pardon guilty sinners. At the cross, God, having imputed the sins of his people to Christ, pronounces judgment upon his Son as the representative of his people. There on the cross, God pours out the vials of his wrath unmixed with mercy until his Son cries out, "My Go...

I was feeling a little moody last night, not because of post Christmas blues, but because my daughter will be going away to be with her dad for a week. Add some self pity to the mix, some circumstance-related stress, and soon my anxiety cupboard was wide open. To combat my "woe is me" attitude, I began to pray. I turned on my shuffle to listen to the Messiah and came across the chorus based on these verses: Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him. I opened my Bible to the Isaiah 53 and read these words, Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted . I am ashamed of the times when I question God's love. But I thank God that He reminded my poor soul that forgets so easily. The reminder wasn't a warm fuzzy, Hallmark moment but a vivid reminder of the death of Christ on the cross. I wasn't just a morally neutral person...