today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Extending the kingdom of God happens not by the power of the sword. It doesn't happen by the power of talent or the power of money. It happens by a greater power, the power of the cross. You go back to any great movement of God, and you won't see a group of people with an army, people with a lot of money, or necessarily a lot of talent. You're going to see a group of people who very humbly and

sacrificially embrace the way of the cross.

Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich.

Have you ever really thought about the fact that the cross was a scary place, even for Jesus?

But he went when he could have easily fled for us. He took it all, all of the pain, the agony, the suffering for us. Because it was the only way for us to have

salvation. God's wrath against our sin is like a toxic poison, and Jesus drank it willingly. What an

important message to hear today. Remember, if you'd like to follow along with the transcript of each

message, you can find them free of charge

at jaddygrier.com. Today, Pastor Jaddy is teaching from Matthew 26 in a message he titled, Abandoned for

Me. You know Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan theologian went on to ask the question. He said, why

why do you think God showed Jesus this in

Gassimony? Why give him a glimpse before it actually began? I mean, it's almost cruel. It's almost a little

dangerous, a little risky because what if Jesus had lost his nerve at the sight? What if Jesus had backed down? What if he had not

gone through with the cross? Why not wait until Jesus was secured by nails to the cross

to then give him the glimpse of this terrible reality? Jonathan Edwards' answer, which I think is

correct, and I'll paraphrase, but his answer was this. It was so we, look at this, it was so we could see Jesus go to the cross voluntarily,

knowing full well what he was about to experience,

so that his love for us would be put on display even more.

God wanted you and me to see Jesus, see the wrath of God, to see what he was about to experience, and to voluntarily choose to go into it

so that we would know that it was not this situation that he just got caught up in.

He knew exactly what he was going to face for us and he chose to do it with eagerness

and joy because of his love for us.

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