4 The Price of Intimacy
THE PRICE OF INTIMACY
There can be no intimacy with God apart from repentance. And contemplating the kindness and goodness of God always leads us to repentance.
I was thinking about that a few days before last Easter. Like most of you, I read through the story of theCrucifixion to prepare my heart for Easter morning. But I recall spending more than a few hours deliberating over the words of Christ when He cried in anguish from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”
I have to admit it. The idea that the Father would allow His Son to suffer the torture of crucifixion is beyond me. The humiliation of nakedness, the searing pain, the smell of blood and sweat, the agony of tears, the spit of drunken soldiers, the scorn of a laughing, jeering mob. When the crowd thinned and the cowards took shelter from the lashing storm, Jesus was left alone. As tears mingled with blood on His battered face, He cried aloud to His Father—the One who had not once turned away from Him in all eternity.
The reply was silence. Cold, accusing silence.
Heaven itself accused Jesus of sin in those horrible moments: lusting and lying; cheating and coveting; murder and hypocrisy; cruelty and deceit. Of course, Jesus had never been guilty of even one of those sins. But we are. And every one of your sins and mine was racked up on His account right there on that cross. The prophet testified:
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.… He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.
ISAIAH 53:4–6, NLT
Paul wrote:
He forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandment which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you.
COLOSSIANS 2:13–15, TLB
So where was God’s goodness in treating Christ so? Where was the Father’s kindness in turning His back on His only Son—while Jesus cried out in horror and grief?
On that terrible, wonderful day, God’s goodness and kindness were directed toward you. God forsook His own Son, so that He would never have to forsake you! And because of those dark hours two thousand years ago, God can say to me, “I will never leave you, Joni, I will never forsake you.”
This is the blood price of intimacy with a living, holy God.
As I pondered that amazing thought, I felt ashamed. The goodness of God was, indeed, leading me to repentance. To think that God’s anger for my sins was poured out on Christ—and that He has no anger left for me.
You know what that makes me want to do? Praise Him. Thank Him. Honor Him. Obey Him with all my heart and soul and mind. Unlike Christ, I will never have to agonize over separation from my Father. And neither will you. God poured the full measure of His wrath—the terrors of eternal hell—on His own Son … so that you and I could be adopted into His very family. That’s how much He loves you. And me.
His goodness has a marvelous way of pushing us to repentance.
A Step Closer
Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
ROMANS 2:4
Pray the words of Psalm 51
back to the Lord today,
and receive a fresh start on the
way toward intimacy with Him.