Death Row

Recently I watched a documentary on the Crime Investigation channel - of people on death row. They had been sentenced to death for some terrible crime they committed. In the story it was revealed that some states in the U.S. now allow family members of the victims to watch the transgressor die.
One mother said she looked forward to that day, and would be standing behind the glass partition with two framed photo's in her hands. One of each of her children that the condemned man had murdered. She wanted him to see the faces of the ones he murdered. She wanted their faces to be the last thing that man sees before he dies.
Others would hold banners with their loved ones names. Some had posters with pictures of their loved ones. Everyone wanted the condemned man to see why he was being punished with death... for these loved ones.

This morning I was reading through John 18-19. It tells the story of how God was sentenced, executed and died a convicted criminal.

Though He had no sin, God allowed Jesus to be condemned as a sinner, and to die a sinners death. When they laid Him on a cross, Jesus said; "No one takes my life, I lay it down."
Just before He died, He must have seen my face, and yours, and He knewthat it was for people like us, people that He loved, that He was going to die.
Jesus had you in mind when He bore the shame and pain of the cross. He would rather taste such a death Himself, than have you die a sinner, condemned to eternal death.

He was condemned so that I could be pardoned.
He died so that I might live.



John 15:3
"No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends." (ISV)