Sunday, November 22, 2020

The coronation of contempt


John 19:1-3…

Here we are now, the picture of perversion. Just because people don’t understand the full weight of what they are doing doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it. And they are doing it with malice. They don’t just deny the divinity of Jesus they defy it. They don’t just mock the King of Kings they are malicious against Him. This is the pit of hell that the unbeliever must be rescued from.

If you are a Christian, this is what you have been rescued from. Yet there are those who don’t believe that they are capable of inflicting such injustice on an innocent man. But this ugly scene plays out day after day. This is what is in the hearts of men. Here we can see clearly what the human heart is capable of. Every human heart, that is.

People do it today. They have contempt for Jesus and the people who follow Him, and would wipe them out if they thought they could, and they often do.  The human heart is not near God, it is completely afar off from God. If pressed it will lash out against that which is true Life and embrace the violence of death, and inflict destruction upon others.

It is in the context of man’s malice that we truly see man’s misery. Yet with our Lord in this position we truly see God’s majesty, His grace under fire (Matthew 5:38-42). It is when we see the heights of His holiness compared to the depths of our depravity that we see the measure of God’s love.

Just remember, when the world strips you bare, beats you down, burdens you and breaks you, Jesus was there for you (1 Peter 4:12-14). He was there first. He took the beating and He took care of the eternal penalty of people just like you. 

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