Can you imagine? The God you worship has put skin on and
walked among you. He has touched you, eaten with you, healed you, taught you,
laughed with you, cried with you, lived with you. Now He shoulders a cross up a
hill and dies for you.
Darkness falls.
Shattered, you stagger away from that hill of blood and
death and suffering. Nothing will ever be the same again. The greatest love
you’ve ever known is dead and gone. All is lost.
Days pass in a blur of numbness. You have no tears left.
But on the third day, light bursts forth. A tomb opens wide,
and its bowels are empty. And look! There He stands—alive. How can this
be?
Suddenly, words come rushing back, things He said and did
that made little sense at the time, but now brim with color and meaning. The
events fall into place and your blind eyes now see how everything has come
together.
After centuries of trying and failing to keep the law, it is
fulfilled. After years of distance, years of inadequacy, years of judgment . .
. at last it is finished. One perfect sacrifice, undeserved, has turned
everything around. The curtain is torn in two. No longer is that holy place of
God reserved for the select priests. Now anyone can walk into His presence
boldly.
Now you can.
Death’s reign is over, its power conquered. You weep from
the sheer beauty of it all as His scarred hands pull you into an embrace. You
never deserved this. You’ve spent your whole life trying to scrub away your
filth, but Love has cleansed you, bought you with blood.
You should have bled out on that cross to atone for your
wrongs, and yet you didn’t. He did. Perfect, blameless, He died a
criminal’s death so you can walk free.
There are no words for this, only gratitude. You lean back
and smile at Him through the tears because now, truly, nothing will ever be the
same again.
Innocence slain. The guilty absolved. A curse broken.
This is a scandal of grace.
—Scandal of Grace, Hillsong UnitedGrace, what have You done?Murdered for me on that crossAccused in absence of wrongMy sin washed away in Your loveToo much to make sense of it allI know that Your love breaks my fallThis scandal of grace—You died in my place so my soul will live
That was really beautiful. Tracey has a blog! I am so excited, you are such a splendiferous writer. :D
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you muchly, Skye! I'm excited to have you pop in! :D
DeleteOh my...that literally took my breath away. Your words made it feel so REAL. It just brought it alive so beautifully. This...wow. I'm kind of sitting her stunned at the beauty of it, the power. This was amazing! Thank you for this beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad--and thank you! ^__^ It's so easy to brush past the meaning of Easter because we hear it all the time, but when we actually stop for a minute and consider how massive, how incredible it really is...just wow. Love you, girl! <3
DeleteWhat a beautiful post! Aaaahh. Thanks so much for this. <3 You put it in such perfect words and it is a great reminder. :,)
ReplyDelete(Also, I don't know if you plan to do tags on your blog, but I tagged you for the 777 writing challenge... You don't have to do it, just thought I'd mention. https://deborahocarroll.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/777-writing-challenge-heartseeker-kw2/)
Thanks, Deborah! <3 I hope you had a great Easter.
Delete(Ooh! Yes, I would totally do tags! That looks like a fun one. Thank you!)
Wow. This was a wonderful post, Tracey. :)
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes we take grace for granted. It's something we should constantly be thankful for, something we should always hold in our awe and wonder. This is a good reminder, not just on Easter, but throughout our whole life.
-Josiah
Thanks, Josiah. :)
DeleteMmhm, exactly. We forget it too easily, don't we?
Everyone seemed to say what I wanted say! It was so lovely! :) I almost felt like crying... Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDelete-CeCe
Thank you so very much, sis. <3 Love you.
Delete