I could NOT say this any better than Oswald Chambers did in today's "My Utmost For His Highest"!
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples,…tarry ye here, and watch with Me. — Matthew 26:36,38
We can never fathom the agony in Gethsemane, but at least we need not misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and Man in one, face to face with sin. We know nothing about Gethsemane in personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary stand for something unique; they are the gateway into Life for us.
It was not the death on the cross that Jesus feared in Gethsemane; He stated most emphatically that He came on purpose to die. In Gethsemane He feared lest He might not get through as Son of Man. He would get through as Son of God — Satan could not touch Him there; but Satan’s onslaught was that He would get through as an isolated Figure only; and that would mean that He could be no Saviour. Read the record of the agony in the light of the temptation: Then the devil “departed from Him for a season.” In Gethsemane Satan came back and was again overthrown. Satan’s final onslaught against our Lord as Son of Man is in Gethsemane.
The agony in Gethsemane is the agony of the Son of God in fulfilling His destiny as the Saviour of the world. The veil is drawn aside to reveal all it cost Him to make it possible for us to become sons of God. His agony is the basis of the simplicity of our salvation. The Cross of Christ is a triumph for the Son of Man. It was not only a sign that Our Lord had triumphed, but that He had triumphed to save the human race. Every human being can get through into the presence of God now because of what the Son of Man went through.
If you can ever grasp the fact that when Jesus walked as a man on the earth, He did so as 100% human! He never stopped BEING God, but He did not operate as God! He operated as a Jewish man under the Old Covenant. He was without a sin nature because He had no natural father, but He COULD have sinned, just as Adam did, or He would not have qualified to stand in our place on the Cross! He BECAME sin with OUR sin, and then He faced being separated from God because of it. Because the sin on Him was NOT His own, He could not legally be kept in hell and under the authority of the devil! Jesus stripped the devil of everything that Adam had turned over to Him in the garden except being able to operate on the earth. The time for THAT to end is coming soon and very soon! HALLELUJAH! Meditate every day on the Truths revealed in this devotional and you will begin to rise up on the inside as a giant when you realize just who YOU are - IN HIM! AMEN! Here is Hillsong with "Grace To Grace":Shalom in Him!
