louder than the mob

there's an old supertones song that says "my sin yelled crucify louder than the mob that day. my sin yelled crucify louder than any mouth..."

it's incredible, it's true. i heard a man speaking a few months back who had spent time in prison. he was a convicted sex offender, and had several victims- all very young. he has since become my brother in Christ and he was sharing his testimony with the audience. he said when he came to a point of salvation, he came to a realization-- he was grappling with the thought of Jesus suffering and dying for his own terrible sins. he said he heard the Lord tell him, "i didn't die for a child molester. i died a child molester."

when he said that, it felt like my heart was burning. right in the middle of making lunch, Jesus hit me with this incredible truth. and in the moment i was just really overcome with the weight of it. it's a thought so beautiful and disturbing at once. we all have fallen short. Jesus is complete perfection. Jesus didn't just sacrifice in our place and stay holy-- he had to become our sin for us to really take our burden on Himself.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV


for that time Jesus spent on the cross, i can't imagine the pain the Father felt- allowing His perfect, beautiful Son to become filthy-- taking on all of the sin of the world. Jesus died a theif, a rapist, a liar, an adulteress, a murderer, a prostitute, an abusive husband, a woman overcome by addiction, a drunk, a terrorist, someone who slaughters innocent people for the sake of genocide, all the disgusting things you can imagine someone guilty of in this fallen place.

i don't even know how to end this. praise the Lord that His love has no boundaries, He fights for us and can't possibly do more to love us and bring us to Himself. we have debts we can never, ever pay, and He has a love that can never, ever fail. how incredible the gift we have if we will take it! my own sin nailed Him there, He took it all on Himself for me-- because He loved me. for each sin i commit, actual, real blood from Jesus' own body was spilt in atonement for it. that's an incredible thought. i can't understand a God like that, but i know i want to get very very close to Him.