As I've been thinking about the cross year, there has been one thing that I can't seem to get out of my head. God can take the worse thing imaginable and flip it in such a way that it becomes the most incredible thing that He has to offer.
I'm always drawn to the story of Joseph in Genesis. And I can hear what you're thinking right now, "What does the book of Genesis have to do with the cross?" Well, hang with me for a minute. To get the whole story of Joseph, start reading in Genesis 37, but here's the Reader's Digest version.
Joseph has a dream that his brothers will bow down to him. This makes his brothers mad. They decide to kill him, but change their minds and end up selling him into slavery instead. Through a long series of events, Joseph becomes the second in command in all of Egypt, and ends up saving his family from a famine that swept across the land. In Genesis 50, after their father dies, his brothers think that Joseph is finally going to get his revenge on them. Instead, he says to them, and I'm paraphrasing here, "You meant this for evil, but God used it for good."
God took the cross - the most horrific, humiliating and dehumanizing manner of execution in human history and turned it into the focus of His plan of salvation for all the world. And this is where it starts to hit home for us as well. God can take all the sin, all the junk, and the awful things in your life - both what you've done and what has been done to you - and turn it around for His glory.
It can't be done by willing yourself to a better life. It can't be done by just being a nice person and doing good things. The only way that the sin in your life can be take away and you can begin a new life in relationship with the Almighty Father is by the cross.
Crucifixion was the worse that humanity had to offer, and God took it and turned it into the way of salvation for all who chose to accept it. It was meant for evil, but God used it for good.
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