This post needs no commentary. I only pray that you’ll allow this truth to change your eternal zip code…
From Max Lucado’s book, He Chose the Nails:
“Through the eyes of Scripture we see what others missed, but what Jesus saw. Colossians 2:24 NLT says, “He cancelled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.”
Between his hand and the wood there was a list. A long list. A list of our mistakes: our lusts and lies and greedy moments and prodigal years. A list of our sins.
Dangling from the cross is an itemized catalog of your sins. The bad decisions from last year. The bad attitudes from last week. There, in broad daylight for all of heaven to see, is a list of your mistakes. … He has penned a list of our faults. The list God made, however cannot be read. The words can’t be deciphered. The mistakes are covered. The sins are hidden. Those at the top are hidden by his hand; those down the list are covered by his blood. Your sins are ‘cancelled’.
This is why he refused to close his fist. He saw the list! What kept him from resisting? This warrant, this tabulation of your failures. He knew the price of those sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was you, and since he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you, he chose the nails.
The hand squeezing the handle was not a Roman infantryman.
The force behind the hammer was not an angry mob.
The verdict behind the death sentence was not decided by jealous Jews.
Jesus himself chose the nails.
So the hands of Jesus opened up. Had the soldier hesitated, Jesus himself would’ve swung the mallet. He knew how; he was no stranger to the driving of nails. As a carpenter he knew what it took. As a Savior, he knew what it meant. He knew the purpose of the nail was to place your sins where they would be hidden by his sacrifice and covered by his blood. So, Jesus himself swung the hammer.
On Easter, remember:
The same hand that calmed the seas, calms your guilt.
The same hand that cleansed the Temple, cleanses your Heart.
This is the hand of God
And as the hands of Jesus opened for the nail, the doors of heaven opened for you.”
Dennis Bloodworth 