Was the Cross Really Necessary (Part Two)

In my last blog post, available here, I began the tale of our cross country trip from Pennsylvania to Oregon. Our second day of actual driving, ended with Janelle's P.T. Cruiser sitting dead along I-70 somewhere in Missouri, necessitating a mid-trip unexpected new car purchase.

We drove from Kansas City to western Kansas, then the next day to Ft. Collins, CO, where we enjoyed lunch with Janelle's niece and her husband, as well as an extensive 45-minute foray into Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, we've seen it. Let's go. (More on that another time -- RMNP is one of our favorite places in the world; it was where we honeymooned 29 years ago, and we hated having to cut our visit short.) From Colorado we drove north into Wyoming, where we reconnected with friends in Casper, before heading out for Yellowstone. We actually got to spend an entire day at Yellowstone, thanks to the gracious offer of a cabin just across the Idaho line from the West Yellowstone park entrance. When it was time to get back on the road, we headed across Idaho on US-20. We stopped at a rest area in the middle of nowhere, and this time, my truck wouldn't start. I found it ironic that we were across the street from a nuclear power facility, but I didn't have enough juice to start my truck! Another tow, another diversion from our schedule, and at 3:30 Friday afternoon (October 10th), we started out on our final 580 miles to Portland. We were bound and determined we were going to get to our destination that day, and even though it was about 1:30 a.m. before we arrived, as far as we're concerned, it still counts.

Okay, now bear with me (a little Yellowstone reference there).

We needed a new car. The dealership was very gracious, but still expected payment. If we couldn't have arranged financing, we would have limped along in Janelle's P.T., hoping and praying it would make it to Oregon. If the dealer had said, You can pay the $20K for the new car, OR you can recite the 23rd Psalm, we would have chosen the easier of the two and started our recitation. But the dealer didn't say that. There were financing options, but we still had to pay for the car. The deal is, if offered two ways of accomplishing something, we're going to choose the easiest way that still gets for us what we want.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan offered, If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things (Matthew 4:9). He was saying, You don't have to go through with the cross and pain thing; just bow down to me and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world.

Just after Peter confessed the lordship of Christ, Jesus explained his coming arrest and execution. Peter got in his face and said, Those things will never happen to you (Matthew 16:22). Jesus rebuked him.

Satan and Peter were both offering Jesus kingship without suffering, lordship without paying the redemption price.

Go to Gethsemane. Abba, take away this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want (Mark 14:36).

If there were an easier way to provide our redemption, Jesus would have taken it, but there wasn't. If righteousness could be gained through the law (or any other way, for that matter), Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21).

Savior, thank you for paying the price, and for not settling for a more comfortable route that wouldn't have accomplished what was accomplished through your shed blood.

We talked about the necessity of the cross on Sunday, asking, Why did Jesus have to die? This week we'll be discussing the sufficiency of the cross, asking the question, Was the cross enough?

Are you putting the full weight of your expectations for abundant and eternal life on Christ and his sacrificial death? If you're betting on anything else, you're betting on the wrong thing.