A Hard Gospel

"Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." (Revelation 22:17 NIV)
Our risen Christ has arms stretched out with a free gift in hand. He offers it to all impoverished sinners. The gift is salvation, and it's totally free. What wonderfully good news that is for us all. The offering is free, the taking is free. But was it really free?
The cost of salvation came at the greatest price in all of humanity, ever. "It cost the Word, who from the unbegun beginning was God and face-to-face as an equal in the Holy Trinity, the humiliation of exile from the throne room of the universe, the renunciation of the glory and majesty which had been His, and the acceptance of an identification with humanity so complete that He must forever remain the Son of man-a circumstance from which there can be no retreat in all eternity to come." (1)
This free gift, salvation, not only came at a high price to Jesus Christ, it comes at a great price to us lowly sinners. We who take the free gift of salvation must make a complete surrender of self in order to completely be "crucified with Christ and to live is Christ." Not only is Jesus Savior of the soul, He is Lord of life.
"The Gospel of Christ, though a comfortable Word, is in a sense "a hard gospel." Jesus warned His hearers that the cost of discipleship is dear.... The gift of salvation is costly. It cost God more than heaven can declare. It cost Jesus the cross. It costs everyone who receives it the total submission of self in the acceptance of the rightful claims of Jesus on the lives and souls of all who would be His for time and eternity.

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken-
Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.

Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought and hoped and known;
Yet how rich is my condition:
God and heaven are now my own!

Henry F. Lyte (adapted)" (2)

1&2: Life in the Son, Robert Shank, Westcott Publishers, Pgs. 14-16

Gethsemane or The Cross

Our beloved, blessed risen Christ came to this physical place, earth, to be a sin offering to God. "Christ in His death fully satisfied the demands of a righteous God for judgment upon sinners and, as their infinite sacrifice, proved a ground not only for the believer's forgiveness, but for his justification and sanctification." (1) As the role and purpose of what a loving Father in Heaven had laid out for this earth shifted, a redeemer was necessary to suffer, bleed, and die for all of mankind. Without a sacrificial lamb for all sinners, the purpose of God for us would have been frustrated. Forever changed. Our Lord covered Himself in an earthly tent to become a ransom for us, and when the time came, suffering had begun.
It is thought by some that the 'true' suffering for our sins came by the way of Gethsemane and not the cross. On the Mount of Olives, within the garden, our Lord chose a solitude place where His petition to a just God commenced. In light of the near future events, the earthly form in which the Savior of the world wore, sustained grievous sorrows in His soul. So agonizing, even to the point of death, was the thought of the crucifixion, Christ fell face down and prayed, "Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (2)
And so it begins. The path from the "oil press" or Gethsemane, opened the gate to the rocky, unforgiving road to a detestable lowly hill, "The place of the Skull," or Mount Calvary. It was at this place where the Savior suffered for our sins. The death of the sacrificial lamb, poured out the blood of that lamb once and for all. Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died to appease a just God, saving us from certain death.
What love, what compassion, what feeling the Master had for us. "For if, when we were made enemies, now were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (3)
The cross is where Jesus died and is where our sins were atoned for. The cross is where our blessed Lord and Savior suffered for the sins of the world. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (4)
Let it be known to all that "at the very instant the blessed Jesus resigned his soul into the hands of his heavenly Father, the veil of the temple was miraculously rent from the top to the bottom..." (5) "It is finished;" that is, the work of man's redemption is accomplished; the great work, which the only-begotten Son of God came into the world, to perform is finished." (6)
It is the Cross not Gethsemane that is significant to God fearing Christians. It is the Cross that carried our Savior through the single most important purpose in His ministry as foretold by the prophets of old. It is the Cross that is forever embedded into a Christan's heart.

1.Jesus Christ our Lord, John F. Walvoord, Moody Press, Chicago, 1977, pgs. 162-163.
2.Matthew 26:39
3.Romans 5:10
4.Galatians 6:14
5.Life of Christ, John Fleetwood, publisher and year unknown, pgs. 138-139.
6.IBID