Herein is Love

In contemplating the cross this week for Holy Week, I am left utterly shaken. What love is this? I join with Spurgeon is saying "love beyond degree"...

O LORD, my God and Savior -
Mockery was a great ingredient to your woes.
Judas mocked You in the Garden;
the chief priests and scribes laughed you to scorn;
Herod set you at nought;
the servants and the soldiers jeered and harassed you with brutal insults;
Pilate and his guards ridiculed Your royalty, even though it was truth;
and on Your cross—where you bled through your hands, your feet, your brow—all sorts of horrid jests and hideous taunts were hurled at You.
Such ridicule is always hard to bear, but all the more when we are in intense agony.
And all the more when it is so heartless, so cruel, that it cuts us to the quick.
As I picture you hanging on Your cross, my great God and Savior crucified, I cannot bear the thought. Your frail and beaten Self was racked with anguish far beyond all mortal guess. A motley mob wagged their heads and thrusted out the lip in bitterest contempt and insult toward you, a suffering victim. So humble a Savior!

O Jesus, “despised and rejected of men,” “acquainted with grief and sorrow,” how could You die for men who treated You so ill, so poorly, so horridly? How? Herein is love so amazing, love divine, yes, love beyond degree! We, too, have despised You in the days of our own unregenerate state, and even since our new birth we have set the world on high in our hearts, and yet You bled to heal our wounds and died to give us life.

Oh, that we could set You on a glorious high throne in all men’s hearts! We would ring out Your praises over land and sea till men should as universally adore as once they did unanimously reject.
Your creatures wrong You, Oh sovereign LORD! And yet, Your grace comes down to us like a river from that Cross. You died and rose again that we might do the same. So we run to you, from the foot of that cross to the foot of Your throne, hearts bursting forth with thanksgiving and praise, “Oh God, take me! Like You there is no other! My life is purchased and Yours!”

- Charles H. Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

   " In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Ephesians 1:7-10 ESV)

This week I am planning time to pause and contemplate the cross. Isn't our Saviour altogether lovely?

Do you plan to spend time this week contemplating the cross? How do you in your family?