As Jesus’ final hours were drawing near, He went with a few of His closest disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He knew His hour was approaching. He had come to earth for this very purpose. Yet in His humanness, He was agonizing. He cried out to His Father that if it were possible there could be another way. But He knew there was no other way. He knew that either the moment He had come for would come to pass or all people would be eternally separated from God. And He loved us too much to let that happen.
Jesus came to save us no matter the cost.
When Jesus prayed, “Not My will but Yours be done.” He knew what the Father’s will would cost Him. Not just the cruel mocking and brutal torture. Not just the physical pain of being nailed to a cross. Not just the image of His mother weeping as she watched Him die. The unbearable part of all of it for Jesus was the fact that in one moment of time He would hold upon Himself the weight of the sins of all humanity through all time. He became sin for us and experienced God’s holy and righteous wrath in our place. He literally suffered and died in my place and in yours.
He knew there was no other way.
When Jesus prayed that if it were possible for us to be saved in some other way, He knew there was no other way. He knew that to reconcile humanity to God, He must pay the price.
Jesus had you and me on His mind when He surrendered to God’s plan for salvation. He carried our weaknesses and our sins to the cross. He was tortured and beaten so we could be healed and whole. He made it possible for us to be counted righteous.
“Can we ever entertain favourable, or even slight thoughts of sin, when we see the painful sufferings which sin brought on the Lord Jesus? Shall that sit light upon our souls which sat so heavily upon His?”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
The decision to stand before God without the righteousness of Christ has eternal consequences that Jesus suffered and died to save you from. The only acceptable sacrifice for sins is the perfect sacrifice. Jesus is the only perfect sacrifice.
For further reading: Isaiah 53, Hebrews 9 & 10
