"Just Because!" - 2

 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12 KJV)

  "We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins." (Colossians 1:11-14 NLT) 

 Because of the love He has towards us, He sacrificed His one and only Son; not just by Him being hung on a cross, which was enough to satisfy the forgiveness of our sins; but He was beaten and ponded on, then crowned with a crown of thorns! What was that all about? And why did He need to suffer such a punishment, before being hung on the cross? 

 Going back to the parable of the Prodigal Son, the situation of his sin wasn't just missing the mark, he had no desire whatsoever to please his father; as some have claimed it, he was rejecting the father's love and care for him and just wanted to leave and have a life of his own. The other brother who questioned the celebration of the father, did so because all he thought about the other brother was of his wickedness and the disrespect he had done to their father. The other brother represented the Pharisees! 

 We really can't imagine what that was like, having been beaten, punched in the face, His beard torn off, and a crown of thorns pushed down on His head. To make matters even worse, they made Him carry the cross on which He would be hung! All of that extra punishment was to remove all of our iniquities! All those things that we do, which are not just missing the mark, but are pure wickedness, where we so fixated on doing what we want, we actually plan and work at doing what we know is wrong... 

"He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all." (Isaiah 53:3-6 NLT)