Words From the Cross (7), Trusting God

Chuckle: "You are beautifully mature when you reach down to smooth the wrinkles out of your socks and realize the wrinkles aren't in your socks!"

Quote: “The Cross is a picture of violence, yet the key to peace, a picture of suffering, yet the key to healing, a picture of death, yet the key to life.” --David Watson

WORDS FROM THE CROSS -- TRUSTING GOD

Then Jesus shouted, "Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!" And with these words he breathed his last (Luke 23:46 NLT).

Never has there been a more ghastly scene than when the one and only Son of God, the Sinless One, was brutally put to death by crucifixion. To the world, his death meant defeat, but the event along with Christ's resurrection brought the greatest victory the world has ever known. Jesus last words were not only a prayer of relief at the mercy offered by death, but also a cry of joyful victory that He had endured and completed his redemptive mission. "It is finished!" (John 19:30)

Today, we conclude our lessons on the Words of Jesus From the Cross with the most trusting prayer ever prayed at death. Like a tired child sinks into the arms of his loving father, Jesus sank into the waiting arms of his Father. What a difference it would make in our lives if we could trust our Heavenly Father as Jesus did.

The last words people speak on this earth are special, and Jesus' last words were especially significant. As he was about to commit himself to the Father, he quoted the Psalmist (31:5) in which David recognized God's mercy, faithfulness, and ability to protect and deliver. The Psalmist was asking for deliverance from death while Jesus asked for deliverance through death unto everlasting life. He made the words of an ancient prayer his own. He had lived the perfect life; and now he was dying the perfect death. He could call God Father in a way that was impossible for any other.

Genuine peace and security are the things only God can give us. The illusion that security can be found in worldly pursuit drives people to do foolish things. True security can be found only in God by authentic faith in his only Son, Jesus Christ of Calvary. God gives eternal security as well as peace and security in this life. A child's existence does not begin at birth. The child has already existed for nine months. At the point of birth, only the conditions of that existence change. So the believer can also view death in this way. At the point of death, the conditions of our eternal life change -- but not the fact that we do indeed already have eternal life if we know Christ as Savior.

If we want to know the joy that Jesus knew in His victorious cry at death, we must make the complete commitment He made. We must literally give our lives to the God that not only loves us, but has provided for our salvation in the death of Christ and will remove the guilt of our sin when we surrender ourselves to Him. Nothing else is sufficient or necessary! How beautiful it is to see someone possess quiet peace and confidence from their relationship with the Savior! I pray you have already trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. If you have not, to do so would be the wisest, safest, and most needed thing you could ever do.

Love, Jerry & Dotse