Look in, and see Christ’s chosen saint In triumph wear his Christlike chain; No fear lest he should swerve or faint; His life is Christ, his death is gain.
~John Keble (1792-1866)
My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?
~ Jesus, now separated from His Father, in the book of Matthew
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last.
~ The account of G_d’s death in, the book of Luke
…and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Philippians 3
Oh beloved, it is true. We are to be like Him fully one day. He who has begun this good work in us will indeed be faithful to complete it until the Day of Christ Jesus. So, now though most surely we are not like Him. But if we know Him, we have begun to take the steps that will lead us to the end of the path one day.
It is indeed the goal of the Christian to be like Him. And the wonderful thing about this goal is that we do not have to dig deeply into some weird textbook, and discern from faint clues as to what the Person of Christ is like. No, He shows Himself clearly as Light and Love and Truth and The Way.
But, there are subtleties that fools like a writer like this can miss. It seems that the scales on our eyes are deeply layered… and just when we begin to think we are seeing things clearly, more of the old us drops away – allow His Light to shine more deeply into us, giving us more clarity on Who He Is and what it is like to be Like Him.
Now, we know most surely that Jesus died for our sins. He is the only one who could do it. And He did it. He went all the way through the process of this horrendous passion doing only what a man who was G_d could do.
But it get’s better.
Not only did He die on the cross beloved. He died showing us how to live like He lived. In His dying, He cast Himself upon the only One who could possibly repair the near-infinite rift torn in Trinity by His dying.
Can we see it? Jesus trusted His Father at His own very lowest point. Jesus, G_d Himself, was in the moment of His death, abandoned by the G_dhead. He was utterly alone for the first time in eternity. He was, by Himself, bearing every wretched thing that had ever – or will ever – fall short of the glory of G_d. Said simply: Jesus was in one hell of a bind.
He, for the only time in eternity was exposed to the risk that He would be alone forever. And still He trusted His Dad! He just knew everything was going to work out fine. He willingly yielded His Spirit to a G_d He could no longer make contact with. It was a casting away of Self, simply trusting that G_d the Father would make good on the catch.
And so now it does seem to this writer, that this may be the deeper meaning of what Paul was talking about in passages like Philippians 3. Oh surely, Paul and we are to sometimes suffer horrendous circumstances. However, any true believer knows there are deeper things than physical pain and difficult circumstance. There are – for all of us – moments where everything looks so dark that we are not sure we know how to trust Him any more. There is – for all of us – the moment when we must abandon our own selves to His care. We too, must cast our very self on Christ.
Look to Jesus beloved. He showed us the way to Life. Even in the darkness of the cross. We can, by His grace, be so conformed to His likeness as to trust Him even when we sense that G_d has turned His back on us. Jesus did it, even when it had actually happened – and things still worked out very well. And it is in this amazing example by the Author and Finisher of our faith that we see faith in God imparting righteousness to everyone who will believe in Him – through the obedience of faith Jesus showed with His own life and death.
