Sonday November 21, 2010

Read Mark 15:1-39

We’ve studied the genealogies all week, hopefully exciting you a little about the coming of the Son of God into our world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst! The reaction of the gentile centurion sums up the whole week - ‘Surely this man was the Son of God.’

Think about that from God’s perspective. The holy and righteous God sent His one and only Son into our world to save us from our sins. WE rejected God and turned our back on Him. We spat in His face and abandoned Him. We rebelled against our true and rightful King and sought to rule ourselves! And God, in turn, chooses not to condemn us, not to strike us with His wrath and vengeance but chooses to send his own Son, Jesus, to die on the cross. God chooses to punish His own Son rather than punish you and I for our sinfulness and rebellion.

Think about it from Jesus’ perspective. The immortal one, the one who was and is and is to come, the one who cannot die chooses to willingly come into the world to suffer the wrath of God for you and I. The man who is God did not grasp at equality with God as Adam and Eve did. Rather, He humbled himself and was obedient, again, unlike our first parents. He was obedient even unto death - willingly suffering death on a cross to bring us back to the Father.

Where Adam and all humanity failed, Jesus succeeded. He did what no other man could do - He obeyed God perfectly and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and rebellion.

The Son of God came into the world to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He came to seek and to save the lost. He came to call the sick, sinners to repentance and life.

If you can understand anything of what has been said today, turn to God and praise Him.

Prayer:-

> Praise God, adore God for the coming of the Saviour into the world. Praise God for your salvation and thank him profusely for all that Jesus suffered on your behalf.

> Plead and petition God that more people would understand the coming of Christ this Christmas and that you personally would be a messenger of the Christmas good news.