Calvary Baptist Church

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He Did it Just for You

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When God entered time and became a man, he who was boundless became bound. Imprisoned in flesh. Restricted by weary – prone muscles and eyelids. For more than three decades, his once limitless reach would be limited to the stretch of an arm, his speed checked to the pace of human feet.

I wonder, we he ever tempted to reclaim his boundlessness? In the middle of a long trip, did he ever consider transporting himself to the next city? When the rain chilled his bones, was he tempted to change the weather? He could have, you know! When it was hot and the heat parched his lips, did he give any though to just popping over the Caribbean for some refreshments. He could have done any of these things at any time he desired.

He if he ever entertained any such thoughts, he never gave into them. Not even once. Just think about that. Not even once did Christ use his supernatural powers for personal comfort. You know, with one word, he could have transformed the hard dry baked earth into a soft bed, lined with silks sheets and foam pillows but he didn’t do any of that. With one wave of a hand, he could have just boomeranged the spit of his accusers back into their faces, but there again, he didn’t. With an arch of his brow, he could have paralyzed the hand of the soldier as he braided the crown of thorns. But he didn’t. He could have come down of the cross that day on Mount Calvary and saved Himself, but he didn’t, he stayed and paid a debt for us.

Want to know the coolest thing about all this?

Not that he, in an instant, went form needing nothing to needing air, food, a tub of hot water and salts for his tired feet, or just a plain good old hot shower, and, more than anything, needing somebody – anybody – who was more concerned about where he would spend eternity than where he would spend Friday’s paycheck.

Not that he kept his cool while the dozen best friends he ever had felt the heat and got out of the kitchen. Or that he gave no command to the angels who begged him, “Just give the ok, Lord. Just one word and these demons will be deviled eggs.”

Not that he refused to defend himself when blamed for ever sin since Adam, or that he stood silent as millions of guilty verdicts echoed in the tribunal of heaven and that the giver of light was left in the chill of a sinner’s night.

Not even that after three days in a dark hole he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a swagger and a question for the lowly Lucifer – “Is that all you got, is that your best punch?”

That was what was cool, incredibly cool.

But do you want to know the coolest thing about the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns?

Folk, He did for you. Just for you.