When I think about appreciating God’s Love and looking at that Love demonstrated through Jesus life and death on the cross, I find, that more and more there is something that stands out to me. He didn’t HAVE to do it. He had the POWER to say no. He didn’t HAVE to endure the temptations. He COULD have ESCAPED the trials and temptations that He CHOSE to ENDURE. Over and over lately this contrast stands out to me.
What I don’t understand is why nobody is preaching on that. At least, not that I ever remember. Why don’t we talk about that? I have heard pastors over the years talk about how Jesus was fully God as well as fully man, but they never talk about the implications of that. They never talk about what it really meant that He was fully God in human form. The fact that He was fully God in human form meant that He didn’t HAVE to endure these trials.
When we as humans undergo trials, it’s because we have to. We aren’t given a choice. Like, hey, would you like to undergo a trial today? We’d be like, ‘Oh hey, no. Not today satan.’ We don’t get those kinds of choices. Trials show up and we just have to trust that God is still there and still in charge while we sit down here and endure. Why is that? Because we are NOT in CONTROl of the situation. We do not have POWER OVER the situation. We can’t just make it go away. But Jesus, was fully man and FULLY GOD. He did HAVE the POWER. He COULD HAVE made the situation go away. What we need to realize here is significant. Every day, day after day, Jesus got up, went about His day, and when trials and temptations came; every day, day after day, He made the CHOICE to endure as a man. Not touching His DIVINE POWER for Himself to make things better or easier. He walked those 40 days in the desert being tempted, when as being FULLY GOD, He could have walked away. He could have made the rock into bread. He could have grown a tree to shade His head. He could have done any number of things.
Goodness knows, if anyone of us were in that position, to change our outcome, we would have. We would have gotten ourselves out of the situation. We would have chosen not to be hungry. Not to be struggling. But Jesus CHOSE to endure. He CHOSE to have the power, and for our sakes, to NOT USE IT. He chose us.
Can you even begin to imagine that? Every trial that comes your way, imagine what it would be like to have the power to make it go away, and then choosing not to. Over and over. Day after day. Having the power to make your pain go away. But keeping it. Having the power to never be hungry and choosing to be hungry anyway. Having the power to take that person who’s making your life miserable and make them go away and then, choosing to keep them right there, continuing to act that way. Having the power to stop the rain and then choosing to keep walking through it anyway. All of that power, right there, at your fingertips, just begging to be used. All of that power to get your own way, and then choosing not to use it. Not just once. Not just for one day. But making that choice, over and over, day after day, for all the years of your life.
When I think about that, like really think about that, another thing that stands out to me is, how much harder that must have made life. To have all of the trials and temptations of earthly life, and the power to change them, then having the WILL to NOT. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be. It’s hard enough as a human to pick the right way over the easy way. But to have to pick the right way, the human way, and not rely on the Godly power living within? How could anyone be strong enough to make that choice?
That my friends, is what truly separates us, our lives, from Jesus. We have no power to change the trials thrust upon us in and of ourselves. Jesus had ALL the power and for our sake, CHOSE not to use it in His trials, so that for our sake, HE could SAVE US.
Image from: https://pixabay.com/photos/jesus-cross-faith-crucifixion-3476251/
Other credits: meme maker.ai
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