Scandal of Grace

Grace, what have You done?
Murdered for me on that Cross

Grace. 

What have you done?

Murdered.

For Me.

On that Cross.

Those words alone were enough to catch my attention and breath the first time I heard this song.  It was shortly before Easter this year, and I immediately tuned in to hear the rest.  For days, I couldn't get enough of this song.  Five months later and I still love hearing this song.

It's a bleak picture - Christ being murdered on the Cross.  Sometimes we think about the Cross and the fact that Christ died, and it is easier to just gloss over the gory details.  But crucifixion was probably one of the worst ways someone could die.  You put beatings and interrogation and ridicule on top of that and it should stop us in our tracks to think about everything that Jesus went through.

For us.

And he didn't just die for the sins of the world.

It's much more personal than that.

He took my sin.

He took my shame.

He took my punishment.

All of the guilt and the wrong that I was punishing myself for.

And beyond that, beyond death, Jesus was brutalized before he was hung on the Cross.  He was bloodied and exhausted, in an agonizing amount of pain.  BEFORE nails were driven into his hands and feet.  Then, he was forced to hang, supporting his body, while its weight pulled against the nails that held him to the wood.

It isn't pleasant to think about these details.  But it is so necessary. 

God moved in my heart, and opened my eyes to see that Jesus' extended arms on that Cross were stretched out for me, along with the rest of the world. It changed everything: my heart, my life, the way that I see the world. I was dead spiritually, but now, I'm alive!

The message of this song speaks so deeply to my heart. And I can nod my head vigorously and mean these words in my heart:

Oh to be like you
To give all I have just to know you
Jesus, there's no one besides you
Forever the hope in my heart

That is how I want to live. This song is a reminder to me to keep trying. When I make mistakes and scream at my kids or treat my husband poorly which happens way too often hardly ever, I need to remember that I want to give all I have just to know this Jesus who saved me when I deserved death. I love the line at the end of the chorus and have found that God is forever the hope in my heart. Were it not for God giving up his Son, to die in my place, I wouldn't have the hope that I am now filled with and want to extend to others.

The Cross has taught me to live

Truly being alive is so much better than the "life" I thought I had before. I stand in awe of the Cross and the truth of those words. The truth of how truly dead I was, even though I knew all the right things. You can know something in your head, but never really understand it in your heart. Sometimes,

I think it takes God stripping away all that we think we love and hold so dear for us to open our eyes and learn to truly live.

Does this song speak to you?

Grace what have you done?
Murdered for me on that Cross.
Accused in absence of wrong
My sin washed away in your blood.
Too much to make sense of it all.
I know that your love breaks my fall.
The scandal of grace, You died in my place
So my soul will live

Oh to be like you
To give all I have just to know you
Jesus, there's no one besides you
Forever the hope in my heart

Death, where is your sting?
Your power is as dead as my sin
The Cross has taught me to live
In mercy, my heart now to sing

The day and its trouble shall come
I know that your strength is enough
The scandal of grace, You died in my place
So my soul will live

Oh to be like you
To give all I have just to know you
Jesus, there's no one besides you
Forever the hope in my heart

And it's all because of You, Jesus
It's all because of You, Jesus
It's all because of Your love
And my soul will live