Everyone who has attempted to live in this world and make a commitment to following the Christ of the Cross and of the Empty Tomb is going to be a man in the middle! The “No Man’s Land” will be there between a commitment to the Lord and a desire to live in a real world, with all of its temptations. Our natural bodies will crave things that our spiritual man will say “no” to. Our spiritual man will be forced to say “no” to things our natural man wants to say “yes” to! How vividly this fact is demonstrated in the life and death struggle of Jesus during what we call Holy Week, which is even witnessed as He hangs on the middle Cross on what we call “Good Friday.”
Jesus came to become the bridge between the Old Law and the New Testament, which is based in Grace. The Law of Moses had provided for mankind’s sins to be rolled ahead of them with a blood sacrifice. The New Testament provided proof that the Christ provided the perfect blood sacrifice which will remove our sins eternally! Remember that Jesus had to cleanse the Temple before He died for the people!
Jesus came to fulfill the covenant between the Creator and His creation. The Tabernacle and Temple of the Old Testament was there to teach rituals and lay forth laws that help mankind to know the God of Abraham and of Mount Sinai. Jesus came to teach us that God wanted to have a personal relationship with us. Everyone who has ever had any kind of relationship understands that fulfilling a law brings fear, but a relationship spans love. It is much easier to follow a set of rules than it is to be ruled by a loving relationship! We often want to take the easy way and try to be good instead of developing a loving relationship with a Holy God.
On what we call “Palm Sunday,” the masses were shouting great things about Jesus, taking off their robes to make a path for the donkey on which He rode, and placing palm branches before Him as a sign of the acceptance of His Kingship. But a few days later, many of the same people were calling for His execution. All of His followers (Disciples) fled when He was arrested and yet after His Resurrection, He called them all to be the leaders in the New Testament Church! He had washed their feet knowing the betrayal of each, but empower even Peter who denied even knowing Him, to lead the Gospel Followers.
Hanging suspended on the Old Rugged Cross, we hear Jesus cry, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing!” And to the one repented thief hanging on His side, He said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise!”
How could Jesus have been such a bridge for all mankind between sin and salvation? I believe because He knew that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life! For God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world through Him might be saved!”
