“THE SON OF MAN MUST BE LIFTED UP!”

 

John 12:27-30                 (ESV)

“THE SON OF MAN MUST BE LIFTED UP!”

[27] “NOW IS MY SOUL TROUBLED. And what shall I say? ‘FATHER, save ME from this hour’??? But FOR THIS PURPOSE I have come TO THIS HOUR. [28] FATHER, GLORIFY YOUR NAME.” Then A VOICE came from heaven: “I HAVE GLORIFIED IT, and I WILL GLORIFY IT AGAIN.” [29] The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to HIM.” [30] JESUS answered, “This VOICE has come for your sake, not MINE.”

SPEED READING has gotten me into trouble more often than not, yet VERY FREQUENTLY I have, IN MY HASTE, omitted acknowledging the question mark(s) (???) at the end of the third sentence listed above.  JESUS wasn’t asking this question because of what lie ahead of HIM, for HE KNEW what THE PLAN called HIM to do for HIS CHOSEN!  In John 15:16 HE plainly said “YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME, BUT I CHOSE YOU and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the FATHER in MY NAME, HE may give it to you.”!  HE CHOSE US (Ephesians 1:4) BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, so HIS wretched future was preordained on our behalf!!!

THE GLORY of the hideous Cross is something so gory that humanity declares as reprehensible!!!  But my vile, reprehensible self required an ABSOLUTE PERFECT SACRIFICE to redeem it, AND JESUS WAS MY ONLY HOPE!!!  Without JESUS, I had NO HOPE of an eternity with MY SAVIOR!

HIS SACRIFICE seems SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND from where I sit currently, but it is also VERY IMPROBABLE knowing what HE received from Calvary.  Why would the PERFECT LAMB OF GOD YEILD UP HIS LIFE for someone who values HIS SACRIFICE with such disdain???

“THE SON OF MAN MUST BE LIFTED UP!”, not because I am worthy, but because HE IS WHO HE IS!!!