Many millions in the world have no idea how HOLY God is and how SINFUL we are. All you have to do to understand what God thinks of sin, is to take a look at his beloved Son hanging on the cross at Calvary, gasping for air, suffering for SIX HOURS in total agony,(not counting the beating he took before being nailed to the cross and the cruel treatment by the Roman guards),  until He finally gave up the ghost and died! But there is anothr "side" to this. I've heard people make comments about how lots of people were crucified by the Romans, not just Jesus and He different suffer any more than they did, and how some of them may have suffered more because they took longer to die, had their legs broken, etc. etc. However, there are some things that the natural man does not understand about the physical death Jesus went through on Calvary.

 

First of all, Jesus was totally HOLY. He had never sinned and He was the Son of God, the 2nd person of the Trinity. He had NEVER been separated from His heavenly Father before. To be separated from His Father was an indescribably horrific concept to him. Taking on the sins of the entire world when He himself had never committed ONE sin was an unthinkable horror to Him. Something, we in our finite minds could never comprehend. None of us, saved or unsaved will EVER really know the depths of anguish, despair, humiliation, degradation, pain, terror ------- physical, mental and spiritual - that Jesus endured. When he sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gesthemane and asked his Father to let the cup pass from Him, yet not His will but as His Father willed, it was the separation from His Father when He had to take on the Sin of all mankind that brought such dread and anguish to his soul. He had NEVER, EVER been separated from His Father before and He had NEVER, EVER known what it would feel like to become SIN for a sinful creation that He was to Redeem!!! He faced the unknown, just as you and I face the fear of the unknown when we think about facing death. What Jesus faced was a billion, trillion times worse! Remember when Peter drew out a sword and cut off the guard's ear and Jesus healed the man's ear? Jesus told Peter to put the sword back into the sheath. He said (paraphrase) - ....the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?  That cup he was about to drink was His Father's WRATH against sin! All those who REFUSE by faith to accept what Jesus did in their behalf when he bled out on the cross and paid for their sins, THAT is the cup of the Father's WRATH that they will have to drink THEMSELVES forever in hell!

 

They will be forever consigned to be separated from a Holy God and consumed with terrors for all eternity! How sad that so many billions MISS the simple truth of the Gospel message when all they need to do is believe it by FAITH and accept Jesus' BLOOD payment for their sins on their behalf, trading their sins and getting HIS righteousness! Sure, the Romans crucified many thousands of people, especially in 70 AD when the temple was torched. But the suffering they endured had no comparison to what Jesus suffered on the cross. None of us will ever really understand or comprehend completely the depths of love that it took for the Son of God to take on the sins of all humanity in order to redeem us and lift the curse from the earth. We don't know what kind of pain it was for Jesus to have his Father turn his face form Him as He could not look upon sin, nor feel his Father's rejection of Him as He became SIN for us! We were all born into sin with Adam's bad blood. We don't know what it is like to have pure blood and a sinless body, then to suddenly have the sin of the world placed on our shoulders! 

 

To say that Jesus suffered & died on the cross is an understatement! Only God Himself will ever know the depths of suffering He underwent for sinful mankind. Never take the cross for granted! Never make light of what Jesus went through! The Man of Sorrows, aquainted with Grief, bore more sorrow, more grief, more heartache, more tears, more anguish than it is possible to bear, not unless you are God! 

 

That suffering and angish Jesus went through, was for me and YOU! Don't underestimate it's worth! He loved you enough that He would rather DIE than live without you! You are that precious to Him! That day on Calvary, He gave us everything He had to give!  Even the "shirt" off his back!  How people truly believe that they are going to stand (naked) before God at the Great White Throne  Judgement and talk their way into heaven based on THEIR own righteousness is beyond me! How they can reject that amazing, amazing, GIFT of Divine Love is beyond my understanding! They will have to drink that cup of the Father's WRATH themselves! How sad, how tragic that Satan has duped many millions into believing that they are good enough to bypass the blood of God's only Son and make it into heaven on their own worthless merits!!!I saw a bumper-sticker once that read, "If you could earn it, why did He have to die?" With a picture of Jesus hanging on the cross. That is SO true!  And if the Jews under the Law could have been justified by the law, then there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the cross!!!

 

Rene