True Rescue From Hell
NLT (New Living
Translation) – 23 But God knew
what would happen, and His prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was
betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed Him to a cross and
killed Him. 24 But God released
Him from the horrors of death and raised Him back to life, for death could not
keep Him in its grip.
MSG (The Message) – this Jesus,
following the deliberate and well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men
who took the law into their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you
pinned Him to a cross and killed Him. But God untied the death ropes and raised
Him up. Death was no match for Him.
T (thought) – that God already KNEW what was going to happen, what “we”
were going to do to Jesus. That Jesus KNEW what was going to happen, and by
who! Just blows my mind – that the plan was for us to have life through Jesus’
death. We (I) nailed Him to the cross! Because in our old life, we were lawless
as well. Caught in and living in sin, held by its power and chains, destined
for death. Eternal separation from God. Verse 24 is SO powerful! Even though WE put
Him to death and caused Him to go to hell for our sins, actions, choices… God
was the great rescuer and RELEASED Him from deaths chains! That as He was dying
on the cross, He was doing it for each and every one of us that put Him there.
The ones that beat Him, nailed Him, watched Him die, joked about Him… He took
on ALL of our sins and died for US ALL! Then to go back to verse 23 – that it
was a “deliberate well thought out plan” a “prearranged plan” that Jesus
WILLINGLY took on, for us!! WOW!! Blows my mind! “Death” the devil, could NOT
keep Jesus. God planned it, Jesus accepted it, and together They carried it
through.
MEF (minds eye flash)
– God cannot look upon
sin, yet, He created hell for the devil and his lost/fallen angels. Jesus was
sent there by death, for there wasn’t salvation yet.
I see before me the visual of Jesus
being tossed into hell the moment He took His last breath, experiencing even
worse than the beating and public humiliation that He experienced at our hands
here on earth. The hands of hell, the fallen angels, were standing waiting and
ready to grab Jesus and bind Him in not just ropes, but chains as well.
Securing Him to a central place of destruction/torment, like the center of a
boxing ring but larger. Each of the demons were there fighting for their chance
to beat Him, knock Him down, punish Him for their punishments. Their strength
is like 10x plus stronger than the men that beat Jesus in the courtyard. Each
blow, sending Him so fast and so hard across the space to the ends of the
chains. He endured days of beatings that drained Him of more than the life He
had here on earth. The torment had no end. No reprieve of any kind. It is as if
there was no limit to time, the torment was constant. Demons rotating like
gangs in and out with the swirling flow of waves. It was heated with such force
like a wall of flames that licked His skin every second of every moment. The
darkness was so dark, it was blinding. It was paralyzing. They did unspeakable
things that were past our human experience of evil. Every lawless, abusive, murderous,
controlling thing they had ever influenced a human to do – they did here with
utter glee at their disgusting behaviors. The demons were taking out their full
anger on God with each and every blow. Every intimate, invading and
dismembering act drove them all into a mental frenzy that just intensified the
torture. The filth of their evil was putrid it rose in the air with a stink
that was gaging and made it nearly impossible to breathe. The devil himself joined
in, rejoicing at his presumed defeat of the Son of God. He urged his army on with
even more treacherous evil things, things the demons hadn’t yet thought of. This
“death” had such a grip on Him. It was non-stop. The swirls of accusations, comments, suggestions that pierced His thoughts and emotions with such force and heaviness was like drowning in a horrific storm. The devil and his army were in
it for the long haul, they believed they had won, and Jesus was theirs for all
eternity.
On and on this went,
with no recognition of time. Suddenly, the darkness was split open with such
force it threw all that were in this space with Jesus to fly back beyond the space
that light entered. They were thrown into the outer reaches of darkness. Gods
hands reached in with force and evaporate all darkness in that space. He untied
the ropes and chains, releasing Jesus from the grips of everlasting torment and
death. With every lifting of a chain, every untying of a knot, the stripes and
wounds of Jesus were healed. Gods tiny bit of presence pierced the darkness
with such force from His light, that it was as if hell did not exist anymore.
It was complete silence. Peace. Love. Life. Refreshing. God lifted Jesus up and
out of the pits of hell into the glorious light of life! Jesus was in the
flesh, yet in His heavenly body as well. It was now time. Time to be with His
believers.
This MEF gave me the
picture of Jesus truly enduring any and every kind of torment, abuse, injustice…
EVERY evil thing ever done or that will be done to a person, young or old, here
on earth – He ENDURED it in the pits of hell non-stop! What I saw, was worse than I could put in words. Worse than any horror film ever imagined. Detailed in ways that make skin crawl. Why? For us, for love,
for salvation, for eternal life with Him! Thinking that He just took on the “beating”
and death for us, was not the full extent of what He experienced. While being
beaten here on earth, Jesus could see the enemy cheering, dancing, celebrating
the upcoming pending death of Jesus on the cross. They celebrated next to the
humans they were influencing knowing that they will get their chance to do this
and much more to Him when He died. Thinking that they had defeated Jesus and
were winning a battle, they devised plans of what they were going to do in that
moment when He took His last breath. Little did they know, that this too was
part of Gods plan. Part of the plan that Jesus truly would KNOW and understand
ANY and all pains, troubles, abuses people would experience here on earth at
the hands of people influenced by the devil and his army. It had to be this
way, so that we could experience full acceptance and would accept His truth and
gift of salvation. When people are influenced by the enemy and think that they
are not good enough, they don’t deserve His gift and they try to pull away from
Jesus; Jesus steps in and uses the same power that lifted Him out of hell, to
lift His chosen child up out of their hell – this is a true gift of life!
A
(application) –
This is applicable to me today, in that it can and will increase my
understanding of what Jesus truly did for me/us. That Gods plan HAD to be
followed, so that Jesus truly could die for the sins of all mankind – me included.
It has given me a different, deeper understanding and perspective. When someone
says that Jesus couldn’t know or understand – well, while He was in hell after
He died – YES HE CAN and DOES!
R
(response) –
Oh Daddy!!! Thank You! I mean, wow! I feel so blessed, honored that You would
show me such things. Deplorable as they were, the truths of hell that my
limited mind can handle, have made me understand even more deeply. Wow. Thank You Papa.
I am praying for you today. No matter what you have gone through by your hands or at the hands of someone else - that you will KNOW that Jesus truly DOES KNOW how you feel. Inside and out. Into the deepest, most vulnerable inner parts of your heart and soul - He does know. He prayed for you when He was on the cross. He prayed for the sins that have been committed and the sins yet to come for you, me, everyone. I pray that you can crawl up into His arms, tell Him all about what's going on inside, and allow His love to engulf you in such a blanket of peace and acceptance - that you will KNOW His love is real and true! Be still and know that He is God - standing at the door of your heart knocking and waiting for you to let Him in. Invite Him in, so that you can spend eternity in heaven with Him and not in the pits of hell suffering for eternity.
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