Oftentimes, the only step we can take is forward because it’s the only step possible or imaginable.

Oftentimes, we feel the weight of our wrong choices and bad decisions—of our sin. 

Weight has a way of knocking people onto their backsides; yes, life situations may knock us completely down, causing us to stumble from the weight of the heavy load.  Yes, there are times when a weighty situation may knock us to our knees, maybe causing our knees to buckle and crash onto the ground.

When do we find life?    Now?  Today?  Later? Tomorrow?  At Our Birth?  At Our Death?
When do we really begin to live?  Right now….Today?  Tomorrow?  When life is less heavy?  When we retire in 30 years?    At Our Birth?  When we Die?

Can we hold tightly to our sins and really live?      According to God’s Word,   Most Definitely Not.
Is it possible to live (all in) in the present while still gazing into the future?    According to God’s Word, Most Definitely YES!!!!

The great weight of Jesus’ cross surely had to be a tremendous burden for Jesus to bear.

**The Torture.

**The Scourging.

**The Insults.

**The Mockery.

**The Spittle landing on Jesus’ face.

**The Crown of Thorns digging into His scalp.

**The Pounding of the Spike into His right hand.

**The Pounding of the Second Spike Into His left hand.

**The Pounding of the third Spike driven through His feet.

**The Humility—-lifted up for the world to see.

**The Cross…..a torturous way of execution. 

Roman Soldiers were professional executioners whose job was based upon being good at torturing a person and then taking the person’s life…..causing the person’s death.
Truly, if the Roman soldiers were in charge, there was no way Jesus was going to be beaten and then crucified on the cross and not die—–IF the Roman soldiers had anything to say about Jesus’ crucifixion.

BUT

• ***The Government was NOT who took Jesus’ life.
• ***The Roman soldiers were NOT the ones who took Jesus’ life.
• ***NOTHING TOOK JESUS’ LIFE—-BECAUSE…..JESUS CHRIST WILLINGLY LAID DOWN HIS LIFE.
  JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU & FOR ME.
• *****JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE FOR EVERY PERSON WHO HAS EVER LIVED, &
• *****JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE FOR EVERY PERSON WHO LIVES NOW, &
• *****JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE FOR EVERY PERSON WHO WILL EVER LIVE IN THE FUTURE TO COME.

Last evening, we attended an Easter drama that portrayed the priest’s sacrifices upon the Ark of the Covenant, and Messiah’s birth, and Jesus’ death on the cross. As we sat there, reminded of miracles Jesus performed during His ministry, reminded of the horrendous torture Jesus endured, reminded of the great weight of the cross Jesus bore, there was a moment when the dramatists portrayed Jesus staggering under the weight of the cross.  

The thud shook the floor when the cross suddenly pounded onto the stage floor.

The WEIGHT.

The HEAVINESS.

The SALVATION of Jesus as He sacrificed Himself upon the cross.

Willingly Offered & Freely Given.

God’s Plan from the beginning.

In the Bible, the author speaks of the blood, of the sacrifice.  As we sat there watching the drama, we saw the two thieves hanging upon crosses that were clean.  No blood stained their crosses.

BUT……………..Jesus’s cross was covered by His blood.  

“Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (23).

“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;” (24)

“nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own” (25).

“Otherwise, He [Jesus] would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He [Jesus] has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (26).

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” (27)

“so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” (28).

(Hebrews 9: 23-28)

Thank you Jesus. Thank you for Your blood upon the cross, freely offered for our salvation.

When can our life really begin?

When can we really begin to live?

When we step forward with our eyes transfixed upon the cross of Jesus, when we feel the weight of our sin, and see that it was Jesus who bore the shame of the cross of each of us?

His ONE Sacrificial Death.

His blood covering our sin.
THAT’S WHEN……WE TRULY BEGIN TO LIVE.