"They kept shouting--Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Luke 23:21
Multitudes go through the form of paying homage to God--but it is a "god" of their own imagination. They hate the true and living God, and were it possible--they would rid the universe of His existence! This is clear from their treatment of Christ, for He was none other than "God manifest in flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). They hated and hounded Him to death--and nothing short of His cruel death by crucifixion would appease them!
Here at Calvary the real character of man was revealed, and the desperate wickedness of his heart was laid bare. There it was shown,that man was capable of the blackest of all crimes!
As evil as man had shown himself all through his history--the coming of Immanuel to this earth brought sin to such a head--that all that which had gone before, was relatively but a trifling thing--when compared with the monstrous wickedness which was done against Love incarnate! In
the treatment which the Son of God received at the hands of men--we see sin in its true colors, stripped of a disguise, exposed in its hideous reality; revealed in its true nature as contempt of God, and rebellion against Him. Here at Calvary we behold the climax of sin--and the fearful and horrible lengths to which sin is capable of going! That sin which germinated in Eden--culminated in the crucifixion! Here at Calvary, we see sin at it's apex--Deicide--in the slaying of the Lord of Glory!
So why do "Christians" want to befriend the world, the sinners, the God-haters? Why is it that they want to accomodate those who would mock and demand the death of Christ Jesus now? Indeed every unbeliever is in the shoes of both the Romans and Jews of that dreadful day.
Or is it that most professing Christians do not see unbelievers the same as God: desperately wicked, His enemies, haters of Christ, vipers, white-washed tombstones, dogs, pigs, under the law, in Adam, blind, deaf, dead, etc? It seems to me most would see sinners as less sinners and more saints.
Jas 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?
Joh 15:18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
1Jn 3:12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
It could be that the "gospel" professing Christians believed and thus in turn proclaim to the lost does not show the sinner of his sin in the light of all that occured up to and including Calvary. In fact, they've reverse, often times, the two: Jesus as the one who "could" have sinned and the sinner who was pretty holy.
Their "gospel" tells them a lie that sinful man was NOT crying out "Crucify him, crucify him!" but rather, "I'll help Him out. Let's get the water. Let's get the first aid kit. Let's make him more comfortable." Indeed their view of Man is that he's not God's enemy but God's friend! They have Jesus saying "Father, see how good they really are? Their motives are sincere!"
People are bound and determined to have the Cross glorify Man and denegrate "helpless" "loving" ("see how much He loves me...he stretched out his arms to say 'I love you this much' then died" ) Jesus. This just proves that most have no clue about the True Gospel, to their own destruction, because if they did, they would be in total humility and tears and mourning, instead of boasting about their "worth". The Cross of Christ did NOT show the worth of Man, but his horrific sin, indeed! As long as Man thinks "he's worth it", he will not have a true view of his sin and desperate need for the Savior and Master. He is still in his sin and pride. He is still boasting. He still thinks he's not all that bad. And he will duplicate such destructive man-glorifying thinking to others, the blind leading the blind in the dark. They do not know true Grace!
1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
1Co 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1Co 1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
1Co 1:29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1Co 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1Co 1:31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
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