unfathomable: he took the nails for us.

Tonight I am simply going to start writing with no direction or agenda but only a trust in a powerful God to lead. I only know I must write while on a Holy Spirit high that has filled me up and my feet lifted off the ground.

Last night my friend Courtney and I went to a concert and worshipped with Hillsong United and Chris Tomlin. Yes I am aware of scandals. But those would not keep us from worshipping there. Only Satan would benefit from that silencing.

No, instead we gathered anyway and lifted our voices and shouted our praises to God. We opened our hands and raised our prayers and poured out our hearts to the Father. Truth was spoken and chains fell and the place was filled with people longing for Jesus.

Craving hope. Desperate for Heaven.

Joy cascaded in the tears and people were free. Wholly free.

The beautiful, utter expanse of it all.

One particular song though, “Blown Away”, moved me in ways I had not been moved before. That is why we are here. To receive and reconcile the unfathomable love Christ had for us - you and me. So much love He would willingly take our place where our sin left us for dead. He left Heaven and received the sentence we deserved. I’ve known this for a time, as you likely do to. But these lyrics, this tune, lay it out raw and bare and unravel me in a whole new way.

Read the lyrics, listen to the song. It's 6 minutes. Drink it in for yourself. Then come back and finish reading below.

How can we even begin to make sense of it? Christ leaving a perfect Heaven to come to earth to fix our mistakes? To atone for our sin? Why would He willingly endure the betrayal, the deep sorrow, the mocking, the persecution, the lashes, the thorns, the nails, the spear, the tomb?

Who would you or I endure that punishment for?

Remember, we had no chance of making it out alive of the Garden. Adam and Eve made sure of that.

Of course, that was the plan all along.

Then Jesus came, endured punishment for things He did not do, and carried the cross He would soon hang on to bleed to death. Not once holding a grudge. Not one utterance of unfairness or anger or pity. He made no compromises. He took it all, covered in mud and blood, so that we could be clean. It is simply unfathomable. Mind blowing.

I can’t write enough honor onto these pages to justify such a radical, holy, love for me and you. I can’t make sense of it. Can you? I don’t know that we’re supposed to make sense of it….this side of Heaven. Our words, our actions, can never do enough to square that up. We can never repay such a debt. If there were any works or actions we could do to save ourselves, Jesus being hung to die would have been unnecessary. And so we will simply leave that right there.

He loves us that much…that is the message. And it is clear.

He loves us that much.