HOW COULD WE NOT BE MADLY IN LOVE WITH JESUS!

Since I have been a Christian, I have understood that Jesus is the Son of God, and He died for my sins. Recently, I have been moved to look at the cross and Jesus' sacrifice, realizing that much of what I knew was head knowledge, or intellectual knowledge, instead of revelation from the Holy Spirit. I began to look deeper.

This deeper look helped me to see the characteristics of Jesus, the One who died for me. He is described as Heir to everything, the Creator of everything, the Word made flesh, the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s nature, the One upholding the universe by the Word of His power, Savior of the world, Beloved Son of God, Redeemer, Prince of Peace, Supreme Head of the church, the Head of all rule and authority and power, the Greater One, the One whose name is above every name … This is the One who subjected Himself to suffer, to be sacrificed, and to die for the cleansing of our sins (Hebrews 1:3; 10:10,12,14)! Holy Jesus, in all of His magnificence, willingly came to sacrifice His life for ours by taking the punishment we deserved! Jesus’ life wasn’t taken from Him; He willingly gave it for us!

Today, because of Jesus’ actions, we should walk in resurrection life; a life of victory, of abundance, power, and authority – this is our inheritance that Jesus died to give us. He suffered to restore us to peace with His Father. Jesus removed the separation that kept us from the Father’s presence, nailing every reason for separation to the cross. We were once weak, but now we are strong because Jesus took our weakness (Isaiah 53:4 NLT). He took away that which caused us sorrow: separation from the Father, guilt, condemnation, fear of punishment, fear of failure, lack, defeat, worry, anxiety, frustration, sickness, and disease; all of these things weighed Jesus down on the cross (Isaiah 53:5 NLT; Romans 8:1-4; 1 Peter 2:24). He became our sin; it pleased the Father to crush Him, making His life an offering for the sin of all mankind (Isaiah 53:10 NLT).  Jesus also took away the curse. The curse alone was horrific. Deuteronomy 28 explains that everyone who was not obedient to God would suffer. From verse 16 to verse 68, all the curses are described: sickness, disease, and even those not mentioned in the book, lack, confusion, defeat, and emotional trauma. Jesus bore all these in His body and nailed them to the cross! Jesus took upon Himself the burden of all sins for all mankind, once for all (Hebrews 9:28 AMP). When all this was nailed to the cross in Jesus’ body, it died; it no longer has dominion over any child of God!

 Jesus’ suffering was not just from the physical trauma of being beaten, nailed, crucified, crowned with thorns, and pierced; it was also from our burdens which He carried. Jesus was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our sins. He was beaten to restore us and make us whole. He was whipped for our healing (Isaiah 53:5,6 NLT). Matthew 8:17 confirms that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy. On the cross, Jesus finished the work needed for us to receive salvation. This does not only mean that we are saved from the judgment of sin and going to hell because Jesus was judged for us. Salvation is so much more! We should not live simply saved but stuck, trudging through life. The Greek word for salvation is sozo, meaning all that is necessary for life and godliness has been provided for us; all that we need for our well-being, including spiritual and physical aspects, Jesus provided for us by the finished work of the cross. Sozo appears more than 100 times in the New Testament.

Jesus satisfied the work that we could not do. His sacrifice pleased the Father (Isaiah 53:11 NLT). Because of His work, we now enjoy the privilege of holiness and being just like Him (Isaiah 53:11 NLT).

As children of God, in unity with Jesus, we are described as being on top and not beneath. Why? Because right now, speaking of our spiritual status, we are seated with Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father; we experience joint seating with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6 AMP). We are presently molded into Jesus’ image, sharing “inwardly His likeness” (Romans 8:29 AMP). A steady flow of Jesus’ life is present within us! We can appear in the Father’s presence, secure in His love, because we know “the same love He has for His beloved Jesus, He has for us” (Ephesians 1:6). It was the Father’s great pleasure to give Jesus Christ His Son as a sacrifice for all of humanity. It is His pleasure to cascade His abundance and love over our lives right now! We don’t need to wait until we arrive in heaven. Jesus died to give us life in abundance, to the full, until it overflows now (John 10:10 AMP).

Only through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, can we experience what Jesus died to give us. This is what it means to experience God’s love for us, the foundation of why He wanted Jesus to sacrifice His life. As our understanding is open to the truth of God, we receive grace, spiritual blessing, favor, and gifts from the Father (John 1:16 AMP; 2 Peter 1:2). Our inheritance is complete and waiting (Galatians 4:7) … Our journey from being born-again to being received into heaven is a slow process of intimacy with the Lord, as He opens our understanding to know Him and the power of His resurrected life (Philippians 3:10); it is a joyous process. It is more than intellectual knowledge. But He has given you His Holy Spirit so that you may know things beyond your human understanding: “For we did not receive the spirit of this world system but the Spirit of God, so that we might come to understand and experience all that grace has lavished upon us” (1 Corinthians 2:12 TPT). God unveils His profound truths to us by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10 TPT); He reveals “His inmost heart and deepest mysteries” (1 Corinthians 2:10 TPT). But we must decide to pursue Him, cooperate with Him, and realize that Jesus is our vital necessity and the reason we are a new creation, children of God; this is only possible because of His finished work of the cross. Jesus is worthy of our time, our love, and our honor.