The Debt He Paid

* W A R N I N G *
T H I S  P O S T  I S
    G R A P H I C 
But I think it's worth reading. 


   I recently saw a movie called, "A Case for Christ." It was a really good movie and I highly recommend it. The movie is about the journey Lee Stroble went through before he wrote the book, "A Case for Christ," which I also recommend. After watching the movie and reading the book, I dug a little deeper into the crucifixion and couldn't stop crying for almost three days.

    It's a little gruesome, but it's also wonderful at the same time. It's the most beautiful story I have ever, and will ever, read. So, I decided to write a little about what I found. 

   I've been told all my life that Jesus died for me because He loves me, but I don't think I really understood what that meant. It's easy to say Jesus died for me so I'm forgiven. It's another thing to actually realize the true sacrifice that Jesus had to make for us. Not only did He die for us, He died in one of the worst ways imaginable.     
   He was betrayed by someone He cared about. He was flogged in the middle of a crowd. Which, if you don't know what a flogging is, it's pretty terrible. Being beaten with a whip that has multiple tassels braided with metal balls, and sharp pieces of bone on the ends. Jesus got whipped with that 39 times (because 40 is the number at which a person would most likely die from the injuries.) They stopped because they wanted Him alive so He could suffer on the cross. Some flogging victims would have cuts so deep that you could see parts of the spine through the wounds

   When they were finished with the flogging, His back would have been absolutely shredded. After that, they tried to make Him carry a cross which was probably somewhere between 100 - 300 pounds. Only after He collapsed from blood loss under the weight of that cross, did they have someone else carry it.

   Then they drove 6 - 8 inch spikes through His wrists, which would have had to cut straight through the ulnar nerve. That's the same nerve that hurts so bad when you just barely tap your funny bone. It hurts bad enough just taping it, but to actually cut through it... It makes my wrists ache just thinking about it. They drove a spike through His feet as well. 

   After being through all that, hanging on the cross would have made His whole weight rest on the bones in His wrists, pulling both shoulders out of socket and making His arms stretch so far that His lungs wouldn't be able to work properly. He would have had to push up with His feet just to be able to let out a single breath...and doing so would have torn straight through His feet 'til stopping at the ankle bones. This up and down motion would have also been scraping His already raw, shredded back against the rough wood of the cross. 

   Going through all of that, He would have eventually gotten so exhausted that He wouldn't be able to pull Himself up to breathe anymore. Once He had lost all his strength, He would have died from asphyxiation.  

   Worst of all... He knew all of this would happen. He knew how horrible all of this would be. He knew all the pain in the events to come. He asked God to do it another way. He asked God to save Him....but even still, He went through with all of it. Jesus, literally sweating blood because He was in such distress, prayed to His Father for strength... because even at His worst time, He said, "Father, not My will, but Your will be done." Because God loved us. Because Jesus loved you. Because God loved me. Jesus went through all of the pain and suffering and hardship and heartbreak.... He went through all of that so that, through Him, we might be saved. 

   "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 

   A lot of the stories that kids learn in Sunday school are sugar coated versions, as they should be. I'm not sure kids would understand even if we didn't sugar coat them... But If you've never heard the real story and you're still holding onto that sugar coated version... I would encourage you to go seek out the real stories. The real truth about what happened back then. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It's all important and it all needs to be heard.

   The Bible is a curious book. It has countless lessons hidden within its pages. You can read the whole Bible in no time, but it takes a lifetime to study it. If you actually take the time to study it instead of just reading it, you will never stop learning from it. For it is living and breathing Word of God. The words stay the same, and yet it's ever changing. 





I've included links for the book and then movie. Just in case you guys wanted to pick them up. Not sponsored or anything, it's just a very powerful book that I enjoyed very much. 

The book

The movie 

P.s the movie is also on Netflix. 

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