No Other Way (Lent 37, 2024)

In the Passion Week timeline, Jesus is within hours of dying on a Cross for the sins of humanity. Why did He go through with it?

The only answer is that there was no other way.

In His humanity, Jesus prayed to His Father about whether there were other possibilities. “Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him.” (Mark 14:35) His humanity prayed to the Father—about whom Scripture says all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)—that the Father might take the cup from Him.

All things are possible with God, right? It’s in Scripture, right???

Understand this profundity: In this singular case, was there any other way?
There was not.

Possible in theory but not possible for God in Christ to deny Himself or turn His back on His Image. Once Incarnated, God had no choice. The only way was to finish the task of infinite sacrifice.

He is an infinite God and sins against Him are infinitely destructive. His Image in us is what makes all sins ultimately against Him. The only way to correct that would be with an unlimited, eternal and infinite sacrifice to pay for the infinite sin against an infinite being.

Exercise: Joseph understood this. Do we? When confronted by the relentless advances of Potiphar’s wife, he finally said, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9)

On a surface level, the wicked thing would have been against himself and her, but it’s more than just that. Because they both bear the Image of God, any sin against each other is actually sin against God Himself.

What about the way we speak? James 3:9 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.”

In our treatment of others, let’s understand this as well. Any sin against each other is in the end, a sin against God.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Revelation in 40 devotionals for 2022 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.
Last year’s devotionals “Created to Display His Image” explored what it truly means to be made in God’s Image and the profound significance of that fact. They are archived beginning February 22, 2023.