I just watched the video for the song below and it is difficult to comment because of the emotions it produced. Like the apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:14, “The love of Christ controls us”. The love Jesus demonstrated for us on Calvary captures us – it is that great.
I am talking to myself but I am including, through assumption, maybe all of us. What Jesus did for us is hard to grasp. The eternal Son of God left the glory of heaven, became a human for the explicit purpose of dying on the cross to pay for our sins as the holy and blameless Lamb of God. We spend our time on such worthless and ineffectual matters. We think about too many worldly things. We really need Jesus in the front of our minds every day. I think this is where Paul has much to contribute. EVERY – SINGLE – DAY Paul focused on the gospel (death, burial, and resurrection) of Jesus. He never got far from the cross in his own life OR in his thirteen letters – especially when he referred to his own salvation. Here are a few verses for us to cement our souls into:
*Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
*I Corinthians 2:2 – For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
*II Corinthians 8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
*Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
*Galatians 6:14 – But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
*Philippians 3:8 – I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ
Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and check out the video entitled Lay Down My Life by Sidewalk Prophets.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.