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Matthew 20:17-19
In Matthew 20:17-19 Jesus begins a journey to Jerusalem with the twelve disciples that were the closest to Him throughout His earthly ministry. He stopped along the way and said to the twelve, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again” (Matthew 20:18-19 (NKJV). This is the third time Jesus has predicted His death (Matthew 16:21; 17:22,23). Unlike the first two times Jesus spoke to His disciples about this coming event, this third time is the only one in which Jesus describes the way in which He will die, by crucifixion. But the last little sentence in Matthew 20:19 must not be overlooked as the realization of Jesus predicting His own death would seemingly take the forefront of the mind of the disciples. Matthew 20:19b states, “And the third day He will rise again.”
This is a promise of the power of God in His One and only Son Jesus to lower Himself to the depths of hell to save the world from the grasp of Satan.
Romans 6:23 (NIV) states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus would go to the cross innocent of sin – Jesus did not sin, but yet He paid the price for sin. God created man in His own image to have a relationship with man and be glorified through him, but sin entered man and man became corrupted and no longer worthy of the purity of God because man disobeyed God. The Bible teaches us that everyone has sinned and that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 3:23, 6:23). But God loves us so much that He came to us to rescue us from the sin that we have fallen into; all we have to do to receive His forgiveness and the purity of Christ Jesus is to believe – to put our faith in Him which means that we are going to put Him first in our lives and seek and follow His will for our lives while giving Him all praise, glory, honor, and thanksgiving.
Dear LORD,
Thank You for the gift of life and reuniting us with You through the work that Jesus did for us in His innocent death and glorious resurrection to eternal life that is offered to all who will put their faith in You through accepting in our lives the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. In Jesus name I pray, amen.