broken for me

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus:
that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Him who died for us and rose again. Those few words sum up the story that has changed my life and that very probably has changed yours too.

It’s incredible, what Jesus did for us! It’s beyond imagination, beyond comprehension.

God, eternal and Almighty God, became flesh and entered Time as a weak helpless baby – Emmanuel. He spoke, and the wind ceased to blow. He touched blind eyes, and they saw. He blessed one lunch, and it fed thousands of hungry people. These were things no man could do – only God. But yet, He ate bread and fish as any other person would do. He had brothers and sisters just like other boys and girls. He had an occupation. He was a human, like us, and yet He was God, so unlike us. It’s incredible.

And He let Himself be killed at our hands. Handled by people who weren’t worthy to stoop before Him and loose the strap of His sandal. Tried by a man who would condemn the just.

He gave His back to the whip and let His raw back carry stripes that heal. He let His face drip with the spit of the ones He skillfully crafted in their mothers’ wombs. He allowed His head to carry a crown of thorns in place of a crown of glory. He surrendered His hands that had so gently touched blind eyes to be torn apart like the bread He had shared with His disciples, torn open by the iron of Roman nails. He took the sin of the world and was judged in the place of sinners, bearing our punishment, paying our debt. My punishment. My debt. My sin. He was broken for me.

And then He died, God-with-us died. The Word-become-flesh died. For me. For you.

Three days later, He rose for me. He is no longer in the tomb because He has risen!

His death and His resurrection made a way for me to come to God, to have my sins taken away! But, not only that.

He sent His Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper, who would dwell inside me and change my life, inside and out. The Spirit who conforms me into the image of the Son of God. The Spirit who helps us in our weakness.

He gave me the righteousness of Christ, so when the Father looks at me, He sees the record of His Son without spot or blemish, and His blood stamped on top, with the words “Paid in full.”

He put me into the body of Jesus Christ, uniting me with hundreds and thousands of His other children, who all share the same mission.

He granted me access to the throne room of God through prayer, for whatever reason I may have to call upon Him, whether to worship or to ask for grace or for anything else.

He has an inheritance for me in heaven, as His child, and a hope of eternity with the God who died for me.

All these things, all this grace, this mercy – all this, because of His love. The love of God that is more powerful than death, greater than sin, and larger than my mind can fathom. The love with which He loves us is great indeed.

He died for me and rose again – because He loves me.

God loves me. And He loves you too.

---

// love that compels | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 //