But God’s Grace

Jesus chose the cross. He chose miserable death over glorious life. After He partook of the lamb at the Passover meal, He stepped in line behind millions of lambs who had been sacrificed by Israeli families through the centuries. As He went forth from the table to the sacrifice, the weight of the cost became more clear than ever.

When we are at the plate, bases loaded, we feel the weight of success or failure for the moment, for the game, for a pennant. When we are trying to close a deal, we feel the weight of leading someone into the right product for their household or business, of continuing to have our job, of providing for our families. The weight of the success of humanity was on the shoulders of Jesus.

His humanity began to wonder if there was another way. Was this the required way, or just one of several possible ways to recover humanity? The weight of the work and the decision caused His flesh to hemorrhage. The first drops of blood came before the first injury. The last drops came as the result of hideous injury.

The sacrifice was on the shoulders of Jesus, and He bore it well. The government, not just of humanity, but of the universes, is on the shoulders of Jesus, and He is bearing it well. For each of us, He has chosen a burden. The success for the work is partly built into who we are and the experiences and information that have formed us. The further success is built into the particular yoke He wants to use to fasten us to the burden. The yoke fits us, and the yoke fits the burden.

No matter the call or the cost or the pain of what He has given us to accomplish in the earth, His grace is able to make us succeed in it, and when we can see what our sacrifices have accomplished, we will marvel that the massive cost is so small in comparison to the massive benefits.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.
(1 Corinthians 15:9-10 HCSB ©®)
Not I, but God’s grace that is with me. That is my hope of success. That is my ability to bear the weight.