My nugget for today. Galatians 3:1″ O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you”? What was Paul talking about here? He was saying here that the cross was preached to them. They didn’t see the crucifixion with their own eyes, but they had heard it. Remember he said in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he claimed to not know anything except Christ and Him crucified. So, what he was preaching basically was romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death and Jesus provided that punishment on Himself. Paul talked about the cross, the sacrifice the punishment the suffering of Christ so that we would understand what the whole sacrifice was all about. This meant that we would not have to suffer the things that He did.
Christ suffered physically but there was also a spiritual suffering as well. Jesus sweat drops of blood in the garden. Did you know medically it was literally like his heart had ruptured and blood was coming through His pores. How much pressure could He have been under. He wasn’t just about to offer Himself up for just a physical suffering but this Holy God who knew no sin was about to become sin itself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 1 ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ 1 Peter 2:24 ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.’ Jesus didn’t just take some sin He became sin itself. What do you think that means? It means that Jesus became a murderer a homosexual a prostitute. Get my drift? He took it all. It wasn’t just the sin but the shame and the guilt. HE TOOK IT ALL. And when He cried out “My God my God why hath thou forsaken me” that was a quotation from psalm 22:1 Jesus fulfilled that. Christ was forsaken by the Father because that was the punishment we deserved. That is what would have happened to us if He didn’t take it upon Himself. He suffered emotionally, physically all because He didn’t want us to go through the same thing. This is what Paul was talking about when he preached to the Galatians to such a degree that he said Galatians 3:1′ …before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?’ So, think about it. He described the suffering of Christ and what it meant so clearly that it was just as though they were actually there.
This totally ended self-righteousness. that means trying to earn the favor of God. It ended self. Galatians 3:1. So, the cross is saying that Jesus died and did it all because you couldn’t, and any attempt by you to make yourself right with God through your own goodness is a total rejection of the cross. If you could really understand what the cross did for you then you would never go around bearing the shame of any sin. Remember Romans 8:1.’ there is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ…’ The word NO is a Greek word that means an absolute unqualified negative. It means there is no way those who are in Christ Jesus could be condemned. You and I would have been condemned. We would have been guilty if Jesus had not paid it all. Romans 3:23 says’ for all have sinned…’ That means everyone. But it wasn’t just the sin. Isaiah 53:3-7. So, it wasn’t just the physical it was the emotional, the mental anguish, the shame. If you can really understand this then you’ll understand why the Word says in Hebrews 4:16 ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ This is a throne of grace (unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor) not a throne of condemnation. Remember we have been set free in Christ