"Inconceivable"

"And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love." (Psalms 109:5)

 Yes, I am being facetious. Not that we have ever experienced this kind of treatment as bad as Jesus did, because if we did, well, let's just say we wouldn't be here to talk about it. I can't imagine what it could have been like to be in that crowd. Would I have participated in the insults against Him? What did He do to deserve such hatred from an angry mob of people? If only they could have known in that instance that He was being sacrificed for their sins, would it have made a difference? Would it? I am not sure that people would accept it as a gift; for most it would have seemed as though they were being judged, just to need to be forgiven of their sins. If someone were to ask you, "Why did God need to come down from heaven and pay for our sins," would you have the right answer? Where would you start? It is really important to always start at the beginning! We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners! I was going to get a tattoo on my shoulder, once upon a time, that simply said, 'Born to be Bad.' It was not because I thought I was born to mess up, but I truly believed I was born messed up; and I was not that far off from the truth. Each and everyone of us were born into this world as sinners; each and everyone of us had the same sinful nature that was passed down from our ancestor Adam. His seed is what made each and every one of us possible. When God spoke His judgment upon the serpent, He said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Obviously the devil does not have the power to stop the Word of God, because that actually did happen...

"Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. "He saved others," they said, "let him save himself if he is really God's Messiah, the Chosen One." The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" A sign was fastened above him with these words: "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, "So you're the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself -and us, too, while you're at it."" (Luke 23:34-39) NLT