a Love Story – the Plan – February 13

a LOVE STORY
February 13, 2021

the Plan

Isaiah 53:10-12, ‘Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush Him with pain. The plan was that He give Himself as an offering for sin so that He’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through Him. Out of the terrible travail of soul, He will see that it’s worth it and be glad He did it. Through what He experienced, My righteous one, My servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as He Himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore, I’ll reward Him extravagantly—the best of everything the highest honors—because He looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because He embraced the company of the lowest. He took on His own shoulders the sin of the many, He took up the cause of all the black sheep (MSG).’

The cloud of agony which rolled in off the ocean of grace carried with it dank cold air and it covered the face of its Creator. He had read the headlines and He bowed His head. He looked upon the leaderless generations wandering, wandering, aimlessly wandering, and He thought through the outline He had made of His plan. Was this really it? Did this really have to happen? The Father winced as His Son walked up to His throne in all glory and majesty. The Mission He’d devised played through His mind; He envisioned all the details and silence ate the space between Father and Son. He glanced simultaneously through His notes, and without surprise, He heard, “Father, the sins are so great and mankind’s need so huge and the altar so empty. Where is the Lamb?”

Now He loved His son more than anything else in all of creation, His creation. The sun rose over His son and the moon set and stars formed planets around the existence of His son like a crown. He would love many sons before all of life was complete, but His one true son, with Him, He shared all things, and in Him, all that is and was and would be was encompassed. And His son loved Him; together they were One and the Same. Where One ended, the Other became. And the Father cherished the Son because of His willingness and obedience, and together they were developing this rescue mission; they were in it together. Like Noah and the ark, he and his sons worked together and out of their hard work, new opportunities had come. So shall it be now. In fact, down through all the ages, fathers and sons had accomplished many great feats for the Kingdom.

This would by far surpass them all.

But it would also bear an unimaginable price tag. It wasn’t even a life sentence with which He was going to charge His one and only Son; it was the death penalty. There would be no acquittal, no pardon for Him, no clemency, no final appeal that would result in a reprieve, no sudden late day save garnered from new evidence. His Son would become the ransom for all mankind. He would recover everything the enemy had stolen from His Father, be the retribution for all the messiness that had been conceived between man’s disobedience and the enemy’s cunningness. Because of His Son, the world the Master so loved would flourish again, and like the garden, it could grow freely, not choked by weeds of sin. It could reap fellowship with the Creator and sow something other than despair. Because of His Son, because of Jesus, because of His willingness to endure the penalty of death and separation from His Father, mankind could walk in freedom as the Creator had once dreamed. Humanity would be vindicated and exculpated, exonerated, forgiven, no longer tethered to a past, extricated from a dark pit, redeemed and ready for the light.

The gavel sounded. The Father sighed, watching the expectant look in His Son’s eyes. “You, My Son, are the Lamb. It is time.”

During the month of February,
come with me as we JOURNEY through
the greatest LOVE STORY ever written.