Damnation, and he took it lovingly.

 Thanks to Michael Johnson on the Desiring God blog.  Read the full post here.

Rabbi Duncan was a great old Reformed teacher in New College, Edinburgh, a hundred and more years ago. In one of his famous excursions in his classes, where he would move off from the Hebrew he was supposed to be teaching to theological reflections on this or that, he threw out the following question: “Do you know what Calvary was? What? What? What? Do you know what Calvary was?” Then, having waited a little and having walked up and down in front of them in silence, he looked at them again and said, “I’ll tell you what Calvary was. It was damnation, and he took it lovingly.” The students in his class reported that there were tears on his face as he said this. And well there might be. “Damnation, and he took it lovingly.” - J.I. Packer, Knowing Christianity

The Cross and the Resurrection. They go hand in hand. You can't have a risen Savior without a dead one and a crucified Messiah is powerless if he is still in the grave. Yet somehow I get the sense we tolerate the Cross to get to the Resurrection. We want the glory, but we want to avoid the shame. Skip the bad stuff, skip the hard stuff, skip the cruel stuff. Just give me the the empty grave and Jesus' resurrection power.

But isn't the glory and the power of the Resurrection found in the ugliness and brutality of the Cross? Do we really grasp the fact that the Cross was supposed be ours? The shame and torture and rejection by God really belonged to us? As Packer quoted above Calvary was damnation. Our damnation. But Jesus took it for us and he did so because he loved his Father and he loved his soon to be brothers and sisters.

So, as we rejoice one day removed from Easter, let us celebrate that Jesus is no longer in the tomb. But let us also celebrate that the tomb is empty because the cross did its job and the One who hung on the cross did so willingly and lovingly. And let us celebrate that the damnation that was ours became his and is now completely removed from the mind of God.

To God Alone be the Glory