"Calvary was always part of God’s plan"

14, April 2017

"Calvary was always part of God’s plan"

‘But it was the Lord’s good plan to … cause Him grief.’ Isaiah 53:10 NLT

The psalmist wrote: ‘My God, why have You forsaken Me … I am … a reproach of men, and despised … All those who see Me ridicule Me … saying, “He trusted in the Lord … let Him deliver Him”… I am poured out like water … My bones are out of joint … My tongue clings to My jaws … They pierced My hands and … feet … and for My clothing they cast lots.’ (Psalm 22:1–18 NKJV)

Think about it:  David could be describing Jesus’ crucifixion in detail. Yet when he wrote these words crucifixion hadn’t been introduced as a form of execution.  It was initiated centuries later by the Phoenicians, and long after that, it was adopted by the Roman Empire. Dr Charles Augustus Briggs says: ‘You can take this psalm … lay it side-by-side with New Testament accounts of the crucifixion … and see how they dovetail perfectly.  It’s astonishing that someone could describe something so intimately and intricately a thousand years before it happened’.  Calvary wasn’t the result of happenstance.

Long before Jesus came on the scene, God had a plan to reconcile us to Himself through Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:18).  Historian Paul L. Maier says: ‘In Isaiah chapter 53 we have almost a running commentary on what happened on Good Friday … It would be mathematically impossible for anyone else to fulfil all these parameters of prophecy in the Old Testament better than Jesus’.  Bottom line: ‘It’s what God had in mind all along … that He give Himself as an offering for sin’.  That means long before there was an Easter, God was thinking about you!