CALVARY FROM GOD’S VIEW

 It is Easter week and very soon we will start seeing terribly curated dramas and plays aimed at depicting the journey and events of the cross. One common theme all of these plays and drama is the suffering that Christ had endured before and during His crucifixion as well as His death and the significance they hold for us today.

We can all testify that the journey was gory and the suffering unbearable. But have we ever tried to view or imagine the whole story of the cross from Heaven’s perspective? How does the crucifixion and death look from the Fathers angle?

Let us take a moment to consider it.

According to Isaiah chapter 63 verse 10; “...it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer...”

The King James Version puts it more disturbingly. ‘...it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.’

 Why would a ‘loving father’ will for His Son to suffer or derive pleasure from it?

 Why did He sit comfortably on His throne and watch His only Begotten Son be flogged, tortured stripped and dragged naked along the street by mere mortals who were created by the Son?

The pain was so much that Jesus cried multiple times that the Father should take the cup of suffering away from him.

Even when He was on the cross, He wept so sore because the Father had forsaken Him.

Given all of these, it is easy to assume that God sat, untouched, on His throne while Christ bore the pains and suffering that paid the price for our salvation. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

To answer these questions, let us begin from the last point.

DID GOD FORSAKE THE SON?

In Psalms 89:14, we are taught that the very foundation of God’s throne are RIGHTEOUSNESS and JUSTICE. Those are not attributes or characteristics of God. Those are His very nature. And He displayed both when Christ was crucified.

Habakkuk 1:13 states that God is too HOLY that His eyes cannot behold iniquity. While Jesus was on the cross, He was the embodiment of iniquity and because God is JUST, He could not bend His own standard, not even for His Son.

Yes, the suffering was real and the pain was unbearable because Jesus (even though He is God) was fully human. There is hardly any mortal that would go through that and not break. But even in that situation, God did not abandon Him. God the Spirit was always with Him. It was never recorded that the Spirit left Jesus.

The Holy Spirit was with Jesus as He died on the cross, enabling Him to submit Himself as our ultimate sacrifice. He was also with Him when He presented His blood “without spot to God” – Hebrews 9:14.

‘But it doesn’t take away the fact that God seemed unmoved by the suffering of His Son.’ One might be inclined to state. That also is not true. God made us in His image and likeness. That means if we have emotions it is because God Who is the original from which we are made also has emotions.

The scriptures according to Matthew 27 tells us of the thick darkness that fell on the earth, how the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom and how there was an earthquake that split mountains.

These phenomena clearly describe the reaction of a grieving father who had to witness the gruesome murder of his child.

• There Was Darkness On The Earth for three hours (earth’s time). But we know from 2 Peter that a day is like a thousand years before the Lord. Now imagine what those three hours must felt like.

• The Veil Was Torn. To fully understand this, we need to look back at the custom of the Jewish nation. Tearing of ones robe/clothes was a sign of mourning and deep grief. (Job 1:20)

We also know through scriptures that the veil separated the Most Holy which was the dwelling place of God from the rest of the temple. The splitting of the veil (measuring over 60 ft tall) from top to bottom could only have been done by God’s hands; exemplifying the Father grieving over His Son.

• There Was A Mighty Earthquake. One passage sums this all up;

Psalms 29:3-9 TPT

[3-4] The voice of the Lord echoes through the skies and seas. The Glory-God reigns as he thunders in the clouds. So powerful is his voice, so brilliant and bright— how majestic as he thunders over the great waters!

[5] His tympanic thunder topples the strongest of trees. His symphonic sound splinters the mighty forests.

[6] Now he moves Zion’s mountains by the might of his voice, shaking the snowy peaks with his earsplitting sound!

[7] The lightning-fire flashes, striking as he speaks.

[8] God reveals himself when he makes the fault lines quake, shaking deserts, speaking his voice.

[9] God’s mighty voice makes the deer to give birth. His thunderbolt-voice lays the forest bare. In his temple all fall before him with each one shouting, “Glory, glory, the God of glory!”

What the world saw and heard were a mighty earthquake and earsplitting thunder. But what heaven recorded was a heart broken Father letting out a deep felt cry of pain at seeing His only Begotten, beloved Son die at the hands of unworthy men. For the very first time since the beginning of time Father and Son were separate because of sin, none of which were the Son’s sin. Creatures manhandling the their Creator whose breath alone could wipe out the entire earth.

WHY THE CROSS

Someone once asked ignorantly; “would it not have been much easier for God to just forgive Satan and let everything get back to normal instead of letting His Son to suffer and die to save the world?”

I am sure he isn’t alone in that thought.

Satan was the least of God’s concern as far as the story of redemption goes. He only came into the picture because of man’s failure.

According to my father in faith, Pastor George Izunwa, the spiritual hierarchy was God=> Man => Angels => Satan. But man fell in Eden and handed his dominion, authority and position to satan. But from then onward; up until the sacrifice of Christ, all that God did was to restore man back to his rightful place. It has always been a love story between God and man.

IT IS ALL ABOUT LOVE

God gave His up to suffer and die because He loves us. Jesus chose to suffer and endure the shame and pain of the cross so that through His precious blood we will be reconciled to God as not just servant but as sons. Jesus Christ paid the price for our adoption into the family of Yahweh.

Galatians 4:4-7 KJV

[4] but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

 [5] to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

[6] And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

[7] Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

 

John 1:12 KJV

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

 

Romans 8:15-17 KJV

[15] For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. [16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: [17] and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

 

John 15:12-13 FBV

[12] This is my command: love one another as I have loved you. [13] There is no greater love than to give your life for your friends.

 

The summary of the journey of Calvary is all about love. God loves us so much that He doesn’t want us whom He made in His image to continue to remain in bondage, subjected to the evil rule of a fallen angel. Jesus has paid the price that restores us to our rightful place as His heirs.

And all we have to do is believe in Jesus and accept the Love that He is offering so willingly.

- Lesley Chimezie