The Faith of Jesus

We are facing uncertain days. We continue to remain stuck in our homes, social distancing continues to take its toll on our relationships and emotional health. Unemployment continues to climb, some are watching their savings and their investments slowly shrinking while feeling completely powerless. Medical staff finds themselves facing challenging situations that continue to worsen. We keep waiting for things to get better, longing for good news.

Maybe next week will be better?

When can we see our friends?

Seniors won’t get to celebrate their graduation like they dreamed for years.

No sports, no concerts, no plays, many businesses closed, for many no work.

We don’t know how long this will last. We are don’t even have a good grasp on what this is. So what do we do?

Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
- Revelation 14:12 NKJV

Jesus

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 
- John 1:1-3 NKJV

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
- Colossians 1:16-17 NKJV

Let’s take a moment to try to grasp that Jesus is God and holds all of reality together. I know it’s impossible at fully grasp, but we can at least make an effort. Jesus, the most powerful being in the universe, our creator, chose to come and live among us and to die to save us.

This same Jesus who was with God and is God from the very beginning, Who created all things and for Whom all was created is the one who was born in a manger as a baby. Jesus chose to be born here on earth, to grow up experiencing life just like we do. Except Jesus actually lived a perfect life (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22), dedicated to healing and helping (Matthew 8:16; 12:15; 14:14, etc.).

 For 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 NKJV

Jesus became our sin offering on the cross and accepted our punishment. This is the grand exchange of the gospel — we exchange our sin for Jesus’ righteousness.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
- Mark 10:45 NKJV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
- Romans 3:21-26NKJV

Perhaps you are familiar with these texts and others like it that describe salvation through Christ’s substitutionary atonement. But where I want to focus on this post is how it felt for Jesus to die for our sins. What must it have been like experientially for the Son to be separated from the Father because of my transgressions?

Let’s read the account according to the gospel of Matthew

36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”
- Matthew 26:36-46 NKJV (bold mine)

Try to imagine with me for a moment, Jesus has never been separated from the Father. The Godhead has never been separated. However, as the sins of all of humanity begin to be placed upon Jesus, He experiences the distance from God that we are so used to, but then it just kept getting worse. Jesus was bearing my sins, including the worst sins of my life. Including the times you felt the most distant from God and did the things you dare not even remember doing. Not only that, but Jesus is also taking upon Himself the horrible sins for those who will never accept His forgiveness. Jesus died for them too, should they ever choose Him, but even if they don’t. If they don’t turn to Jesus they will not receive forgiveness, yet He paid the price for them, to make salvation available to them. All the worse things done in this world, Jesus took all that guilt and it crushed Him. Jesus could not feel the Father, and He began to have second thoughts regarding going through all this.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
- Isaiah 53:4-6 NKJV (bold mine)

Jesus cried out to God “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;”

If there was any other way for humanity to be saved, Jesus would prefer to not have to die, to not have to carry our sin and guilt. But there was no other way. From Genesis 3 (for more on this check out my posts Paradise Lost, and SomeOne is Coming) there had been a need for animal sacrifice, for the spilling of blood.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
- Hebrews 9:22 ESV

But this was never enough. John the Baptist understood that the sacrificial system ultimately pointed to Jesus.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
- John 1:29 NKJV

Everyone knew what happened to the Lamb, the lamb had to die because of my sins. Abraham had alluded to this, perhaps he was not even aware that the Holy Spirit was inspiring his words at the time when his son Isaac had asked him about the lamb for the sacrifice

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
- Genesis 22:8 NKJV

There was no other way, if Jesus gave up and decided to walk away we would all be lost, as well as everyone who died before us hoping that one day the Messiah would come and die for their sins. But praise God Jesus’ prayer did not end with His request for the cup to pass from Him, but rather with “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

The Faith of Jesus

Jesus was in deep distress. We will never be able to comprehend what Jesus experienced that Friday. You see, you and I can barely handle our own guilt, the guilt of our own sins. We can barely bear our own griefs and sorrows, yet Jesus had to bear the griefs and sorrows of our entire planet. We will never know what it feels like to bear someone else’s pain. We can guess, and oftentimes mistakenly we say things like “I know what you’re going through.” But we don’t, we might have an idea, because we might have gone through something similar, but we never know, we never experience the pain of another. We may suffer with them, but not for them, not what they are experiencing. Yet Jesus suffered for all of us, He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Here is the main point I wish to make.

Even though Jesus was being crushed by our transgressions. Even though Jesus was feeling distant from the Father. Even though Jesus was experiencing more suffering than any being has suffered in the history of the universe, He continued to trust in the Father. Jesus trusted the Father’s plan, knowing that the will of the Father would bring about the best possible outcome. Knowing the great love of the Father, Jesus trusted Him over His own experience and desires. Jesus felt misery, sorrow, pain, exhaustion, despair, fear, but He submitted to the Father and trusted the will of the Father. Jesus could have left, Jesus could have used His divinity and just left, or just destroyed everyone. Jesus could have quit at any point, but He stuck to the plan. When Jesus was experiencing too much agony to be able to think straight and began to have second thoughts, He still had faith in the Father and asked for the Father’s will to be done.

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 
- Matthew 26:42 NKJV

That my friends, is the faith of Jesus. I believe that is the faith that God’s people must have when things get tough. This is the faith that says “I feel scared, I don’t see a way out, but I will submit to the will of God and trust Him to provide.” When I am scared, when I am overwhelmed, when I panic, when I feel like I am about to die, I must still be able to trust God and in His will. I must know in the depths of my being that God is good and that He loves me and that when I submit to Him and His will the best possible outcome will come about. Even if I die, but I do so in accordance with God’s plans for my life, some good will come of it.

I am not saying we should be careless or throw our lives away. I am saying that even death, is not final when I am in a relationship with God. I may not be delivered the way I want to, I may not get what I am asking for, but I am open to what God has for me. I am ready to continue to fight and serve, I am also open to resting when the time comes. Ultimately I need the faith that allows me to lay all my plans, fears, and anxieties and desires at the feet of God and ask that His will be done.

When I have that faith, I can face anything. When I die to self and live for Jesus my life stops being about my and becomes all about the mission God has called me to.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- Galatians 2:20 ESV

The faith that Jesus had enabled Him to lay down His life knowing that if it was God’s will everything would work out in the end.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Hebrews 12:2 ESV

The joy that was set before Jesus was an eternity with those who love Him. Out joy is spending eternity with Jesus, and our faith in Him guarantees us that future and even makes it our present.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
- 1 John 5:13 ESV

So as we face all the fears and uncertainties that come with COVID-19, I pray that we can have the faith that Jesus has, to trust the Father and submit to His will, even if it looks scary, even if it feels incredibly challenging, even if we fear for our life, that we may trust in Him and submit like Jesus did as our example. May we trust in God always and never rebel against His will.

May we always pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. “ (Matthew 6:10 ESV)