Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last. Luke 23:46
Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. 1 Peter 4:19
There was a deliberateness about Jesus. He dove into His sufferings rather than being swept up helplessly by the tide of humanity and circumstances.
He not only understood His calling, but He knew that The Father is the faithful Creator, the one whose will is being acted out on this great stage of life for His glory and for our honor. Even at this last dark moment, as the earth convulses and the sun darkens and the full weight of sin bears down on Him, He does not waver.
The Psalm of David comforts Him and frames the context. My Father, Abba, You who is trustworthy from beginning unto everlasting, to You I entrust all that I am.
I am rereading Mere Christianity again, because I realized that probably I have not read it since high school. Or at least for a very long time. And I am considering it as a gift to Frederic’s mom if she asks what in tarnation is going on. And Lewis explores this moment of perfect submission. Man has tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. He is not an imperfect creature who needs improvement. Rather he is a rebel who must lay down his arms, surrender, say he has been sorry, realize that he is on the wrong track and start again. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.
This repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.
And so, among the many other things going on that cross, one of them is Christ, the perfect man, demonstrating what perfect submission looked like. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man, and He could do it perfectly because He was God. This is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all.
Therefore, let me plunge into life as well as I do good. Not reacting to the circumstances, rather acting. With complete surrender to my Father God. Jesus, the eyewitness, the only one who has seen the Father, knew that He was indeed trustworthy.
To Him I lift up my soul.
Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. 1 Peter 4:19
There was a deliberateness about Jesus. He dove into His sufferings rather than being swept up helplessly by the tide of humanity and circumstances.
He not only understood His calling, but He knew that The Father is the faithful Creator, the one whose will is being acted out on this great stage of life for His glory and for our honor. Even at this last dark moment, as the earth convulses and the sun darkens and the full weight of sin bears down on Him, He does not waver.
The Psalm of David comforts Him and frames the context. My Father, Abba, You who is trustworthy from beginning unto everlasting, to You I entrust all that I am.
I am rereading Mere Christianity again, because I realized that probably I have not read it since high school. Or at least for a very long time. And I am considering it as a gift to Frederic’s mom if she asks what in tarnation is going on. And Lewis explores this moment of perfect submission. Man has tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. He is not an imperfect creature who needs improvement. Rather he is a rebel who must lay down his arms, surrender, say he has been sorry, realize that he is on the wrong track and start again. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.
This repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.
And so, among the many other things going on that cross, one of them is Christ, the perfect man, demonstrating what perfect submission looked like. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man, and He could do it perfectly because He was God. This is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all.
Therefore, let me plunge into life as well as I do good. Not reacting to the circumstances, rather acting. With complete surrender to my Father God. Jesus, the eyewitness, the only one who has seen the Father, knew that He was indeed trustworthy.
To Him I lift up my soul.
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