Rarely for a good man

will someone die

 

 

Somewhere in time, this week, I had a God moment.  This happens every once in a while and normally when I need to be reminded of something.

I have very long hair and one morning I was braiding the hair on the top of my head to keep it out of my eyes for work.  I do this several times a week and it normally only takes a few minutes.  Only this time, the first time through something went wrong and I had to take it out and start again.  The second time was equally disastrous.  I started to wonder if I should choose a different hair style for the day, but I gave it one more try.  My arms were starting to ache from being held up over my head so much.

That is when this thought hit me.

When Christ was hanging on the cross, His arms where stretched out. They were nailed by the wrists to a wooden beam.  If my arms were sore just by holding them up to braid my hair, imagine how much more Jesus’s arms ached.  Of course His pain didn’t stop there.  If we relaxed his arms, it restricted his breathing.  He would need to pull up on His arms or push up on his feet which were equally nailed to a beam, just to get a breath.

This thought reminded me how much God loves me.

I held my arms up for convenience and vanity.  Christ held his arms up for love.

He didn’t have to die, He chose to die.  He knew there was no other way for us to gain salvation than for someone to die for our sins.  He did it so we wouldn’t have to.  That is love.

Romans 5:7-8 New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.