The scene is this: Jesus has set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem, knowing full well what is waiting for him there. He sends off Judas from the supper table knowing that the next time he'll see him will be when he betrays him with a kiss. He prays so earnestly in Gethsemene for his Father to find another way that he sweats bullets. If there was one thing in the universe that Jesus didn't want to do, it was the one thing he was purposely walking right into. The horror of the cross that Jesus was about to willingly climb up onto wasn't the physical brutality of it - that was like a mosquito bite compared to the real carnage of the cross. The horror and hell of the cross was that God the Father was about to torture the soul of God the Son by pouring out onto him the white hot rage of his wrath for every God-belittling sin that we human rebels had ever and would ever commit.
That is the context this verse speaks out of. This verse asks the all important question - WHY?!
Why on earth (and in heaven for that matter) would Jesus do this awful, horrible thing?! There is a reason. It's not because Jesus was a victim and couldn't escape. There are a bunch of verses that tell us otherwise. "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." (Jn 10:17-18). Or, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:53)
The reason Jesus willingly carried the cross was because he wanted to get something that could only be gotten by hanging on that tree and having his own dear Father bludgeon the life out of his soul with the judgment of the sins of the whole world.
This verse puts it more succinctly: "Jesus,...who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame"
He endured the cross FOR the joy that was set before him. Wow! What was that joy that he wanted so badly that it was worth paying the price of the worst possible fate? Here's where the songs come in.
The first song is "Above All", by Michael W. Smith. The song starts out with two very God exalting verses that basically exclaim the worth of God being "above all" else.
Verse 1:
Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature
And all created things
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man
You were here
Before the world began
Verse 2
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders
The world has ever known
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth
Then the song goes into a chorus which describes the cross.
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
And at the climactic point in the song the writer tells us what the joy was that Jesus desired to purchase, even though the price meant going through Hell.
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
Wow! Really?! Me?! Above every other valuable thing in the universe, even above the worth of God's own perfections, and honor, and self-sufficient, infinite happiness, the one thing that Jesus thought of that made the prospect of taking the full brunt of his Father's hatred worthwhile was the chance to be with me?
But wait, wasn't it I (and those like me) who stoked the Father's fury to begin with because of my wretched, God-despising rebellion? Wasn't it my putrid wickedness that propelled every lash of the whip, every thorn in the brow, every flesh piercing nail and the very Trinity-dividing, Father-forsaking, soul-incinerating punishment that Jesus had to endure?
This song is indicative of the most widely held view of God's redemption of sinners in today's church. Namely, that God saved sinners because there was something in them that he found worthy of saving; because he found them desirable; because his happiness would have been degraded if he couldn't have them with him in heaven.
And not only this! This value that we sinners have to God was so great ("God SO loved the world") that he counted the price of humiliating, torturing and killing his own Son not too high a price to pay to gain our friendship.
Now, before I go off...let me switch gears. Let's look at another song, and another viewpoint.
The second song is "Savior King" by Hillsong United. This song's lyrics span many more themes than "Above All", and so the lyrics that address this topic are fewer. But the scene is the same. We're still "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame."
How does this song explain what motivated Jesus to choose to climb up on that cross and face unendurable torture? The song puts it simply:
Let now your church shine as the bride
That you saw in your heart
as you offered up your life
At first blush this might sound like the same message, but it is VERY different. This song echoes Ephesians 5:25-27: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."
There are several points to notice here, but we'll settle on two:
1) Christ died to get himself a bride, and that bride is THE CHURCH. Jesus didn't die for you or for me as individuals, he died for you and me as members of his body, the church. People often say, "If you had been the only person on earth, Jesus still would have come and died for you." I don't know that that's biblical, and I'm sure that the thought behind it isn't. Think of the scores of people that God smote in his anger and are even now burning in the white hot fire of his rage.
2) Christ went to the cross to get a bride that would show off his greatness. He died for her to cleanse her and make her spotless so that he could present her to himself as a prize, a trophy. And what does this trophy signify? What does it proclaim? "In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory." (Eph. 1:11-12) The purpose of the cross was to magnify the justice of God's wrath toward sin and the extravagance of his mercy toward sinners.
So, the next time you hear either of these two songs, think of the two very different viewpoints they represent.
Which song represents you?
