Irreducible

The Irreducible Minimum.

Somewhere in the recesses of my school memories I remember struggling with math questions - factoring until you reached the minimum - couldn't go any farther - the finale - the finish. Irreducible: impossible to reduce to a simpler form of expression.

That's kind of how I view Christ willingly laying himself down on the cross.

God.... the Creator... brings His love down as far as He can go. Agonizing.... but choosing to become 'one of us' to give everything.....everything. Impossible to go any farther than giving all He had. It's finished.

Did you catch the significance of that curtain in the temple that ripped from the top to the bottom at the moment of His death? That curtain used to separate the ordinary person from the presence of a holy God. It's finished. We now have direct access. We have direct access.... to a holy God!... who loved us enough to follow through right to the end!

Does that astound you?

After all the working and searching and calculating we do...

It all comes down to this. He's the final answer.

At the cross we're all equal

He knows us..... but there's no condemnation

Forgiveness....paid in full

There's no great significance to the tree....the pieces of wood on which Christ died. But if I ever lose the wonder of what happened there....I'll be struggling with questions - toiling and factoring until I come back to the irreducible minimum.

"...May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross.
May I see it
like the first time
Standing as a sinner lost,
Undone by mercy and left
speechless,
Watching wide eyed at the cost.
May I never lose the wonder,
The wonder of the cross...."

Written by Vicky Beeching 2007

Christ didn't have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.

(II Corinthians 5:21 - The Bible)