Think of the times you have wrestled with a difficult choice. There comes a moment when the decision is finally made, and you realize you are committed to the outcome. One such moment changed the course of history. The fate of the world was decided in one hour in a garden.
The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus agonized over His impending sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. I believe it was not only contemplating the physical pain that He would suffer, but also considering the enormity of the sin He would carry, that Jesus wrestled with. The perfect Son of God, whose divine nature had never once been contaminated with sin, would have to bear all the sins of the world upon Himself. And if that was not enough, He who had been One with the Father for all eternity would experience the separation from God that is the essence of hell. It was a staggeringly high price to pay for our redemption.
In that crucial hour of decision, Jesus prayed several times that the cup of suffering would pass from Him, yet He was determined to fulfill the will of His Father in Heaven. The strain of the decision caused great drops of sweat like blood to appear on His brow. And in that moment, Jesus chose surrender to His Father’s will.
Surrender. It’s a painful word. We associate it with defeat, giving up, being forced to concede that someone else is stronger, smarter, or better than ourselves. Human nature avoids surrendering our will and our choices at all costs. Yet, as Jesus showed us in Gethsemane, surrendering to the Father’s will ultimately leads to victory.
So many times, we think as Adam and Eve did in Eden, that God’s will is limiting, oppressive, and not in our best interests. But when we have our own Gethsemane moment and, like Jesus, choose to surrender to the Father’s will above our own desires, it brings peace and freedom.
Ultimately, His plans for us are for good and not for evil, though we may at times experience
suffering and pain. Mankind lost perfection, fellowship with God, and unending life long ago in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command. But Jesus restored those same attributes for all of us when He chose to submit to the will of His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Paradise was lost in one garden, and Heaven was won back in another garden. The victory was achieved through Jesus’ surrender to His Father’s will, and we too can choose the victory that begins with surrender.
The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus agonized over His impending sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. I believe it was not only contemplating the physical pain that He would suffer, but also considering the enormity of the sin He would carry, that Jesus wrestled with. The perfect Son of God, whose divine nature had never once been contaminated with sin, would have to bear all the sins of the world upon Himself. And if that was not enough, He who had been One with the Father for all eternity would experience the separation from God that is the essence of hell. It was a staggeringly high price to pay for our redemption.
In that crucial hour of decision, Jesus prayed several times that the cup of suffering would pass from Him, yet He was determined to fulfill the will of His Father in Heaven. The strain of the decision caused great drops of sweat like blood to appear on His brow. And in that moment, Jesus chose surrender to His Father’s will.
Surrender. It’s a painful word. We associate it with defeat, giving up, being forced to concede that someone else is stronger, smarter, or better than ourselves. Human nature avoids surrendering our will and our choices at all costs. Yet, as Jesus showed us in Gethsemane, surrendering to the Father’s will ultimately leads to victory.
So many times, we think as Adam and Eve did in Eden, that God’s will is limiting, oppressive, and not in our best interests. But when we have our own Gethsemane moment and, like Jesus, choose to surrender to the Father’s will above our own desires, it brings peace and freedom.
Ultimately, His plans for us are for good and not for evil, though we may at times experience
suffering and pain. Mankind lost perfection, fellowship with God, and unending life long ago in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command. But Jesus restored those same attributes for all of us when He chose to submit to the will of His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Paradise was lost in one garden, and Heaven was won back in another garden. The victory was achieved through Jesus’ surrender to His Father’s will, and we too can choose the victory that begins with surrender.
Recent
Archive
2025
January
2024
October
Categories
no categories
Tags
no tags