But it was an Accident!

"But it was an Accident..."

This is a phrase we hear in our house rather a lot.  This is normally following a howl or a scream or a cry for help with another person crying in pain.  That other person is normally me!

Some people think that Jesus dying was an accident and that if He had been more careful, he could have escaped death.

Maybe if He hadn't gone to Jerusalem; or if he hadn't publicly rode in like a King on Palm Sunday?  Maybe if he hadn't gone to the temple - or overturned the tables upsetting everyone?  Maybe if he had stopped Judas leaving instead of telling him to get it over with... What if he'd gone to hide instead of going to Gethsemine or if he'd defended himself to Pilot.

Some say He was careless - maybe it was all an accident?  Did God make a mistake and let his son die?  What do you think?

Just like the temple lambs were born to be sacrifices, so was Jesus.

It was God's plan that Jesus was needed to save humanity.  God knew that we would not be able to resist temptation but had the rescue planned out from the start.

God lives outside our time and Jesus said that the kingdom was prepared since the creation of the world, so in His grace, He did what it took to make sure the Kingdom was filled with his people despite their disobedience.

Mat 25:34 talks about "... your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."

Jesus himself knew what was going to happen to him.

Mar 10:33-34  "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

It was no accident - the Kingdom was pre-planned and so was the rescue mission.  Despite man's sin, Jesus sacrifice makes it possible for us to enter the Kingdom.  

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." 1Peter 2:24 

Isn't that an encouraging thought - that God's love for us is so great that Jesus came to earth and has paid the penalty for our sin. Our sin was nailed to the cross and has been paid for despite the fact that we make mistakes.  

That's Grace so we can be confident that our future is safe in His hands.