Allen Church of Christ

We are continuing to examine how Christ lived and served the Father. Today’s date, as I am writing this article, is September 11, 2018, exactly seventeen years after an extremely horrific day in which America was attacked by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. These terrorists hijacked four planes, then proceeded to crash two of them into the Twin Towers in New York City, another one into the Pentagon, and the fourth one into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew attempted to retake the plane. These atrocious, inexcusable acts killed nearly three thousand people and injured over six thousand more.

This infamous day will forever be etched into the minds of many Americans. A quick scroll through Facebook today shows that it is rightfully plastered with “Do Not Forget” memes. As a country, we should never forget the heroes who rushed into danger, risking their lives to save as many people as possible. We should never forget the lives that were sacrificed so that others could live. According to the Bible, this is the greatest love that can be shown—”Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). We should never forget the innocent people who were simply going about their daily lives and had them uprooted and wrongfully taken from them in this evil and diabolical manner, forever marring their families with this heinous tragedy. It was an abhorrent, barbaric atrocity that should never be forgotten.

As detestable as this day was, however, two thousand years prior, there was an event which was considerably worse in magnitude and scope, which also should never be forgotten. Unlike the September 11^th attack, where we were innocently going about our lives and were terrorized by an unprovoked attack, we are not blameless in the atrocity of hanging our Lord Jesus on the cross.

A perfect Man, sent from God to save the world (John 3:16), was rejected, abused, wrongfully convicted, and brutally murdered in the most humiliating and barbaric way known to man (Gal. 3:13). His very purpose on this earth was to redeem us (buy us back), because we had sold ourselves into slavery to sin (Rom. 6:16-23), but He lovingly gave us the opportunity to be adopted as sons back into the family of God through His death when we did not deserve it (Ga1.4:1-7). This man was with God and He was God our Creator (John 1:1-3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:2), yet He chose to leave heaven and be born of a woman (Gal. 4:1). He chose to give up equality with the Father to be “a little lower than the angels,” knowing that He would have to die to save us (Heb. 2:5-18). Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

This atrocity had to happen, because “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin” (Heb 9:22) and we all have committed atrocities against God by our sins (Rom. 3:23;1 John 1:8). Every human being who has ever reached the age of accountability took part in this atrocity, because we separated ourselves from God through sin (Isa. 59:1-2), and this gap between us and God had to be spanned for us to be saved. So, Jesus purchased us with His blood (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:20) and God took an atrocity and turned it into salvation, which He offers to all mankind (1 Tim. 2:1-6; Titus 2:11-14;2 Peter 3:9)! Jesus suffered an atrocity, “the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

Never forget that horrific day seventeen years ago where so many died but more importantly, never forget the atrocities we commit toward God, which caused our Lord to suffer and die two thousand years ago. The truest tragedy for us would be forgetting our Lord and not accepting His invitation to come unto Him through obedience to the gospel (Matt. 11:28-30; 2 Thess. 1:8) Jesus lived and served the Father through the greatest atrocity of all time. What will you do with this knowledge? Will you live for Him by serving Him and properly honoring His sacrifice?

Just something to consider.