Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM… endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Since He and the Father are ONE! Could this statement have a dual meaning? Not only in reference to what the Son endured for us as…His one joy.
But what about the Father?
The Father’s Joy is the Son! Can we even imagine what He endured watching everything leading up to, and including His death on the Cross?
For the Joy set before Him, (Him being the Father, His Joy being His only Son)…He endured watching the Son of His love, endure the full brunt of human torture, and the entire process of brutality which lead up to his eventual death! The Father observing the Son, who was completely innocent and without fault, enduring a vicious death, a death he did not deserve!
Even the death of the Cross?
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, EVEN…the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:8)
The Cross, being the favored implement of execution used by the Roman empire, and chosen specifically, for the most heinous and despicable criminals of the day!
He became sin (the worst acts of sinful and shameful behavior, and the resulting sense of being permanently separated from His Father) that we might become the Righteousness (receiving as it were, His own right-ness with the Father, and not by the works of the flesh, but by His doing alone) of God IN Him! (II Corinthians 5:21)
Not only did the Son endure everything He experienced for us, but the Father, the One true love of the Son, the Eternal One who has no beginning or end, also endured the same Cross as His Son!
And for reasons that still escape our own limited human understanding, the Son saw through His own suffering to see man fully redeemed, and completely free to be who he was meant to be, from the foundation of the world!
The ONE (Christ IN the Father, and the Father IN the Son) sacrifice for all men for all time!
All of this…for the Joy that was set before…Them!
Rich "IN" Christ! 