Steve Nelson

There are times in everyone’s life when circumstances seem so overwhelming, so unbearable, that it feels like a thousand-pound heartache on your soul.

No one understands the heart-wrenching pain sweeping over you, pain so intense, so great, you’re certain you will never experience peace and joy again. Perhaps you’ve lost someone dear to you and, as you contemplate the lonely days ahead, you see only emptiness and despair.

Someone I know understands exactly how you feel. He stood at the turning point of eternity, waiting for one word from his father that this was not his cup to bear.

The unfathomable burden of the sins of humanity is crushing out the very life from his soul and he hasn’t yet been to the cross. He hasn’t yet experienced the pain from the crown of thorns as they are pushed ruthlessly into his brow, or suffered the beatings and the nails, which pierced his hands and feet.

As Jesus falls to the ground, great drops of blood fall from his face. He clings to the cold, dark earth as if somehow it can keep him from being torn from his father. He feels the separation caused by the sins that you and I have committed and a vast, dark gulf begins to separate him from his father’s love. He now realizes the wrath of God against those who reject his call of mercy and he cannot see beyond the darkness of the tomb.

It is at this pivotal point, with all of our destinies hanging in the balance, he decides to take the penalty and die in our place. He knows he loves us so much that, if necessary, he will choose to be forever separated from the one with whom he has never been apart. All this, so we could have the opportunity of eternal life. He could have called 10,000 angels, but he didn’t. In order to save us, who had no power to save ourselves, he stood in our place so we could one day stand with him in his.

“…He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) Jesus took our stripes, so we could be healed by his stripes. If you ask, he is willing to take away your hurt, suffering and pain. In him is life eternal and it is his desire to heal your broken life today.

(Steve Nelson pastors the Powell and Cody Seventh-day Adventist Churches.)