Foreknowledge

            So, I am in need of surgery on my knee, it was initially planned for early in December and has been pushed back to the week of Christmas. On the one hand I am looking forward to having the surgery done but the wait time is bothersome. It gives me more time to think about what is coming. Expectation can be exhilarating or frustrating but waiting is draining and exhausting. It was pointed out in church this morning that Jesus had foreknowledge of the life he would have here on earth.
            Let’s put that in perspective. Look back on the first 20 years of your life. How many people did you cross in that time span that pushed your buttons and you had enough of them and cut off ties or at the very least wanted to cut off ties. How often did you scoff at others who were perhaps slower than you mentally or physically? Maybe you were bullied and had vengeful ideas about your tormentor.
            Now, imagine Jesus. He left his father’s side in paradise to be born in a stable! Then spent 33 years on earth dealing with sinful human beings; how frustrating it must be for perfection to live alongside imperfection. For 33 years he suffered the separation from his Father, tolerated all forms of society from the arrogant elitist to the religiously illiterate and all manner of people in between. Perhaps he was bullied as a child, we know he was bullied as an adult. In spite of all that (because of all that) he did not leave us without hope. He knew the suffering and vile death he would face to save the imperfect. Any Jewish man familiar with the book of Isaiah would have known the prophecy from 53: 3-5
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised and we held him in low esteem.  Surely he took up our, pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God stricken by Him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
            Isaiah prophesied it 700 years ahead of time. If you knew you would die violently at the hands of the people you love, could you bare it? THAT is how great His love is for us!
            Ephesians 2: 4,5 “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved.”

GRACE = God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
                     
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