Calvary Redeeming Grace

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Chapter 7: One for Us: Cross

We know God cares about our souls, but does He also care about our physical sufferings? The answer to this critical question is revealed in Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-Man. Why did the eternal second person of the Trinity become a human; or, to get at the question another way, why did Jesus have to live for thirty-plus years before He died for our sins? Did the Son become a man ONLY to die as a substitute for us? The Bible offers us an image of a Savior who lived, grew, matured, worshipped, and suffered (and died and resurrected, AMEN!). 
Jesus came to live the life we all failed to live and then died the death of judgment we all deserved to die - life and death were both necessary for Jesus. In life, Jesus was tempted as we are, broken-hearted as we are, and suffered as we do, so as our Mediator, He can help us as we are (Heb. 2:18). God cares so much about helping you in your physical suffering that He took on flesh to understand your suffering as a human fully. This means that Jesus was not acting out suffering in the Gospels; He certainly suffered so that He could be the perfect and complete Savior for us (see Heb. 5:9). Rest assured, church, God cares about your body and your soul - we need only to look to Jesus to see just how much He cares.

Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering