Jesus prayed His last prayer with His disciples (John 17). He offered it the night before He was to die the most horrible death known, rejected, despised, hated, and worst of all, left fearfully alone to feel forsaken by His heavenly Father. Yes, the Father permitted a great wall to come between Himself and His Son, so that Jesus was abandoned to suffer on a cross the agony of hell--the death that Moses told everybody meant that God curses you forever (Deut. 21:22, 23; Gal. 3:13). It was the ultimate horror--"made to be sin for us who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21).
But the prayer Jesus offered was one of triumphant conquest, claiming the grandest victory possible in God's great universe: "I have finished the work You gave Me to do" (John 17:4). And what was that "work"? "I came not to judge the world but to save it" (12:47). Chapter 3:17 explains more fully: "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
But did Jesus actually "save the world"? Today it looks quite sinful, doesn't it? Like it's still lost! Was He mistaken? Should He have prayed, "Father, I am about to die; I wish I could have saved the world, but, look, they've rejected Me! It's not My fault! I tried to do what You sent Me to do, but Satan wouldn't let me save the world! I've succeeded in saving only a tiny minority! And even they will forsake Me!"
No, His claim to have "finished the work" the Father gave Him to do is true. He DID save the world!
(1) He became the second Adam, a true human being, took into Himself in a legal sense the entire human race, restored what Adam lost, took upon Himself as our Representative all our sins and died our death which is "the wages of sin" (Rom. 6:23), and thus "tasted death for every man" (Heb. 2:9), and forever "condemned sin" in the fallen, sinful flesh of mankind (Rom. 8:3).
(2) That "death" was not the "sleep" that we all experience: it was the real thing, "the second death" (Rev. 2:11; 20:14). The only reason you or I can take another breath is because He has redeemed us from that second death. That's why God can treat "every man" as though he were innocent (which of course we aren't!). Only because Christ "finished the work" He was given to do can God "send His rain on the just and on the unjust" alike (Matt. 5:45).
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 15, 2001
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------Please forward these messages to your friends and encourage them tosubscribe. The "Dial Daily Bread" Web site resides at: http://1888message.org/dailybread/
To subscribe send an e-mail message with "subscribe" in the body of the message to: dailybread@1888message.org
To un-subscribe click on this link: Unsubscribe me from this contact list
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert J. Wieland's inspirational "Dial Daily Bread" messages are availalbe via e-mail to anyone who wishes to receive a daily portion of uplifting Good News. "Dial Daily Bread" is FREE. Due to travel or other circumstances, there may be intervals when "Dial Daily Bread" will not be sent.
