Resurrection Blessings

This week as we approach Resurrection Sunday let us keep in mind all the wonderful blessings we enjoy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Last Sunday in church as I listened to pastor Clyde pouring out his heart about the sacrifice of Christ the Lord gave me a revelation about the three days He suffered in Hell on our behalf. 

It says in 2 Peter 3:8, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 

On the one hand, God sees our entire life as a fleeting moment of time, indeed, whole epochs, past or future, can flash by Him with the same clarity that we can consider the day we have just completed.  That explains the second half of the scripture above but what about the first half?  In the first half it says, "a day to OUR LORD is as a thousand years."  In His eternal state He sees things in a certain way, but in His human state He must observe time as we do.  The revelation I received was that God did not endure three days in Hell as we would but rather as He, God, would.  To Him those three days were subjectively three thousand years.  He didn't die to suffer for one man's sin but for all mankind's sins.  That weight of suffering was not anything that you or I could endure and maintain our sanity.  That suffering was something that only God Himself could endure.  Objectively a mere three days separated Him from His Heavenly Father, but in reality as God Man He endured it with all the clarity, understanding and eternity that made Him the only acceptable payment for our sins.  Jesus was in the grave, separated from His Eternal Godhead while still possessing that glorified state of being.  In that glorified state He effectively endured three thousand years of sorrow and grief for our sakes.

Beloved, the next time you read Matthew 26:39, consider that Jesus was not concerned so much with His death as with His extraordinary separation from God, something He had not endured for all eternity past.  The fear and grief Jesus bore was from our standpoint an almost eternal separation from God that effectively lasted for three thousand years. 

If you have ever told yourself, "I could do three days in Hell without God for an eternity of reigning," I submit that even a mere three days would have destroyed you.  Certainly three millennium would.  Rejoice in our Lord and Savior beloved.  His suffering for our sakes is much greater than we will ever know.  Call out to our Lord and rejoice in His sinlessness AND His strength!  Thank you Lord for my salvation!

Rejoice on this Resurrection day beloved.

Bishop J