Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. (John 12:31–32 NAS95)
Jesus had just prayed, asking that His Father’s true character shine through upcoming events. The thunderous volume of the response revealed His Father’s ecstasy in the revelation yet to come. Crucifixion looks like defeat, but the character of God has no brighter light and no louder shout to express its depth and beauty. Love, forgiveness, selflessness, humility, other-centeredness, restraint, service, self-giving, submission, endurance, rest, trust, self-denial all stand emblazoned on the cross for eternity. God, humble? God, submissive? No force? Only the beauty of invitation to believe in a God so secure to love this deeply remains. Jesus endured much to and through the crucifixion, but He revealed so much more. The invisible made visible. The Indestructible does not destroy.
Friday’s crucifixion beheld the gloom of an ominous storm bent on complete devastation, but it only deepened the revelation of God’s character to renew, reshape and remake: to restore a broken and tattered creation to life, the kind of life He’d always desired for them, a life in communion with Him. The ways of the world bested by the ways of God and His Kingdom. A change took place that day, a change the world will never get over. Three days later Light shone out of darkness. Resurrection revealed Jesus embodied and alive, never to die again. The humble, Triune, Father, Son and Spirit really reign, now and ultimately. Renewal jumps out. Life returned. Through Jesus, the indestructible life, the eternal kind of life, lived in communion with the Father can now break into all who believe what the crucifixion reveals: a God who loves, forgives, relates, reshapes and transforms the future today for those who believe. What a revelation to behold and to contemplate? Jesus has been lifted up; let us draw near without any fear!
For Reflection:
“One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4 NAS95)
- How do you experience God’s invitation through the cross? What stands out to you as reflecting the beauty of God’s character?
- Where or how do you experience difficulty in living into God’s radical love for you?
