Uncommon Sense

To the casual passerby, the bloody mess hanging limply on one of three Golgotha crosses, hardly identifiable as a human being, would likely not suggest royalty, nobility or any sort of excellence. In fact, he would not even draw the uninterested observer's pity; executed with two criminals, he no doubt deserved whatever suffering he received. Only disgraced neerdowells, the scum of the earth, wound up on the accursed, Roman cross.         Looking forward to that time, Isaiah the prophet wrote:

As many were astonished at you--his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (Isa 52:14-15 & Isa 53:1-4 ESV)

        So Yeshua, unremarkable son of Yoseph the carpenter, conceived out of wedlock, ended his life a complete failure. Is there any wonder that so many people, even today, despise that unfortunate young man and ridicule the deluded few who fanatically follow his teachings? It's just a matter of common sense.         Picking up Isaiah's narrative at verse five:

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa 53:5-6 ESV)

        Here, common sense flies out the window of credibility. First, how could one man's suffering and death remove the guilt of sin from the whole of mankind? And second, if he indeed had such influence with the eternal, self-existent God, why would he ever submit to such complete injustice?         The answers lie, hidden like a massive iceberg beneath its snow-capped tip, in another Scripture passage:

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (Joh 3:13-20 ESV)

        First, while Yeshua, known to us as Jesus, was just a man, he was the only man ever to have descended from God's presence to the very earth he created(John 1). Second, God lifted him up, out of his low-born mediocrity, to become the one object of faith that would save believers from the universal fate of mankind, unto eternal life.         The best-known of all Scripture verses explains, with beautiful economy, how this one man's death could achieve so much:

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (Joh 3:13-18 ESV)

        God's infinite love reached out to his fallen, hopeless creation with his only divine Son, that all who believe in who he is and what he did, should not suffer perdition with the rest of mankind but gain eternal life.         That touted common sense shrivels like a leaf in fire when we compare God's action with what his righteous wrath could have done to us. Rather than punishing his fickle people as we deserve, he spent his Son's human life to save us from the condemnation we deserve. While belief in his name--his true identity and his selfless work--prevents our just condemnation, refusing to believe guarantees it, because his name means he is "God with us."         If you can't believe in who Jesus is and what he did for sinful man, please, don't blame your precious common sense. While refusing Jesus is indeed common, only the blindness of rebellion prevents your coming to faith in him.