The Amazing Grace of God

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This is the Truth Network. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is absolute, transforming and restoring lives, healing hurt and making all things new. This power set Michael Bowen free from the captivity, darkness and hell of addiction and delivered him back to God. This is Jesus Breaks the Chains. Hello and thank you for tuning into this podcast, which is a part of the Jesus Breaks the Chains series on Truth Network. I'm evangelist Michael Bowen, and I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly and you receive this word in love and in truth.

This podcast is titled The Amazing Grace of God. Ephesians 2, we're going to begin in verse 8. It says, For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. You can't earn your salvation.

You can't work it out. You can't try to be good. You can't do ministry or acts of kindness or works for God. Those are all good, but those will not get you into heaven.

Those will not give you eternal life because the gift of eternal life is from God and it's by his grace. And it's only through our faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This scripture Ephesians 2, it's a beautiful scripture. It shows us the true nature of God that while we were yet sinners, God redeemed us for no other reason than his love for us and his desire to bring us back to him in relationship for our time here on earth and for eternity. God extended his grace toward us when he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross. The word grace in the New Testament comes from the Greek word charis, which means favor, blessing or kindness.

Our heavenly father is good and his nature is one of kindness. We know that the wages of sin through our scripture reading, we know that the wages of sin is death, which is really just separation from God for eternity. But God extended grace towards us as he chose to bless us rather than curse us as our sin deserves. In the beginning when Adam and Eve first sinned against God, God showed them grace. He could have killed them for their disobedience and sin, but instead he chose a way to make them right before him. God took an animal and he killed that animal and he took the skins of the animal and he placed it over Adam and Eve to cover their sin. God continued this pattern of extending grace as we read about in the Old Testament when he implemented the blood sacrifice of animals as a means to atone for the sins of men and women. It was not the actual physical blood of those animal sacrifices that cleanse the people. It was the grace of God that forgave those who trusted in him and his word. Sinful men and women showed faith by offering the sacrifices that God required by his word as he spoke those words to Moses. The covering of sin with the animal skins and the sacrifice of animals and shedding of their blood were both precursors of what was to come. They were shadows of the kindness and goodness of God that was to come through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh what a mighty God. Oh what an amazing father.

Oh what a gift giver he is. And in Hebrews 10 it writes about this. It writes about the law and in the law of the animal sacrifices and it talks about it being a precursor of what is to come.

Hebrews 10 starting verse 1 we're gonna go all the way through to verse 10. It says for the law having a shadow of the good things that come and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered for the worshipers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins but in those sacrifices there was a reminder of sins every year for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore when he came into the world talking about Jesus he said sacrifice and offering you did not desire and he's speaking about the father. Jesus says sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you have prepared for me and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will oh God. The son came to do the will of the father hallelujah to be a propitiation for the sins of humanity to do the will of God. Then it says previously saying sacrifice and offering burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire nor had pleasure in them which are offered according to the law. Then he said Jesus behold I have come to do your will oh God.

He takes away the first that he may establish the second by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Men and women listening to this podcast friends of mine brothers and sisters the only way any of us can enter into a relationship with God is because of his grace towards us. By grace we are saved saved by grace through our faith in his son Jesus Christ the lamb of God. Only his innocent blood shed could cover the sins of humanity could wash away the sins of humanity can cleanse humanity once and for all as the scripture says Romans 5 says but God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. We all probably can recite one of the most well-known scriptures in the Bible in John 3 16. Just me saying John 3 16 it automatically probably goes in your mind and you could just say it right now without looking it up and it goes like this for God to love the world that he sent his only begotten son that whoever should believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. You see that for God so loved the world for God so loved you and me that he gave us the gift of salvation.

We can't earn it we don't deserve it but he gave his love away for us in his son Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he sacrificed his son on the cross for us so that we can have relationship with him for eternity. You know God did not leave us just like he did not leave Adam and Eve in their fallen sinful condition. He didn't leave us in our fallen sinful condition that was so deserving of death instead God sacrificed his son the only the only begotten Jesus Christ and chose the crucifixion on a cross which is the most devastating and painful way of dying that a sinful humans could imagine or do to someone it was a truly horrifying experience for the person being crucified and you you can understand the horror of this if you are able to understand the process of actual crucifixion on a cross. Right now I would like to share with you an article and it's called the physician's analysis of the last six hours before Jesus Christ passed on from the crucifixion. It is from New Wine Magazine April 1982 and was originally published in Arizona Medicine Magazine March 1965 by the Arizona Medical Association and I'm going to read this to you now and I want you to take it in I want you to to just relax right now and go inside this picture with me that I'm going to describe and and put yourself there to try to see and feel and experience for yourselves in a way how what Jesus went through when he was crucified. Now again it goes like this crucifixion is the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get our term excruciating.

Can you believe that? Our term excruciating comes from the word crucifixion that right there speaks volumes. It was reserved primarily for the most vicious of male criminals and this is interesting to me the most vicious of male criminals so it was not reserved for the females only the male criminals and the worst of the worst of the worst and I know Jesus certainly was not that. Again reading it says Jesus refused the anesthetic wine which was offered to him by the Roman soldiers because of his promise in Matthew 26 29 which goes like this but I say to you I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. Jesus was stripped naked in his clothing divided by the Roman guards this was in fulfillment of Psalm 22 18.

They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. The crucifixion of Jesus guaranteed a horrific slow painful death having been nailed to the cross Jesus now had an impossible anatomical position to maintain. Jesus his knees were flexed at about 45 degrees and he was forced to bear his weight with the muscles of his thigh which is not an anatomical position which is possible to maintain for more than a few minutes without severe cramp in the muscles of the thigh and the calf. Have you ever done that? It's an exercise that you can put your back against the wall and you put your your legs at a 45 degree angle and see how long you can you can sit there without your legs given out and I challenge you to do that if you want to stop this podcast right now and go do that then by all means do that or after this podcast go try to do that put your back against the wall put your knees bend your knees at a 45 degree angle and see how long you can stay there and see what happens to your thighs and calf muscles and that's what Jesus had to do. Back again reading in the article Jesus weight was born on his feet with nails driven through them as the strength of the muscles of Jesus lower limbs tired the weight of his body had to be transferred to his wrist his arms and his shoulders within a few minutes of being placed on the cross Jesus's shoulders were dislocated minutes later Jesus's elbows and wrists became dislocated the result of these upper limb dislocations is that his arms were nine inches longer than normal as clearly shown on the shroud and the shroud is just the the barrel cloth they presume it to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ the one that they wrapped his body in and and there's evidence that that of that in that shroud in that shroud we don't know actually if it is the actual shroud but we can't we think it might be but it's interesting nonetheless to consider back reading in addition prophecy was fulfilled in psalm 22 14 i am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint so but from psalm 22 14 we we do understand that that his limbs became dislocated his arms his shoulders his elbows and his wrist because it talks about that in psalm 22 14 and then it goes on after Jesus's wrist elbows and shoulders were dislocated the weight of his body on his upper limbs caused traction forces on the pectoralis major muscles of his chest wall and those are just your your chest muscles that's your major chest muscles are your pecs okay reading again these traction forces caused his rib cage to be pulled upwards and outwards in a most unnatural state his chest wall was permanently in a position of maximal respiratory inspiration in order to exhale Jesus was physiologically required to force his body in order to breathe out Jesus had to push down on the nails in his feet to raise his body and allow his rib cage to move downwards and inwards to expire air from his lungs it's all it would almost be like drowning suffocating and and having to try to muster the strength to be able to lift yourself up enough to get a breath out so you don't die his lungs reading again his lungs were in a resting position of constant maximum inspiration crucifixion is a medical catastrophe the problem was that Jesus could not easily push down on the nails in his feet because the muscles of his legs bent at 45 degrees were extremely fatigued in severe cramp and in an anatomically compromised position unlike all Hollywood movies about crucifixion the victim was extremely active the crucified victim was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross a distance of about 12 inches in order to breathe the process of respiration caused excruciating pain there's that word again excruciating comes from the word crucifixion the process of respiration caused excruciating pain mixed with the absolute terror of asphyxiation smothering um um um and and just the loss of of breath and suffocating as the six hours of the crucifixion wore on can you believe that six hours he went through this as the six hours of the crucifixion crucifixion wore on Jesus was less and less able to bear his weight on his legs as his thigh and calf muscles became increasingly exhausted there was increasing dislocation of his wrists elbows and shoulders and further elevation of his chest wall making his breathing more and more difficult within minutes of crucifixion Jesus became severely this no way I hope I said it right that means severely short of breath it's the medical term for that his movements up and down the cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in his wrist his feet and his dislocated elbows and shoulders the movements became less frequent as Jesus became increasingly exhausted but the terror of imminent death by asphyxiation forced him to continue in his efforts to breathe Jesus's lower limb muscles developed excruciating cramp from the effort of from the effort of pushing down on his legs to raise his body so he could breathe out in their anatomically compromised position the pain from his two shattered median nerves in his wrist exploded with every movement Jesus was covered in blood and in sweat the blood was a result of the scourging that nearly killed him beaten with the cat of nine tails which is a whip with with nine strands and pieces of bone and metal and glass on them to cut his back and so he was covered with that blood that was coming from the body that was scorched and the sweat was a result of his violent involuntary attempts to effort to expire air from his lungs he was struggling forcibly trying to get that air out of his lungs lest he die throughout all of this he was completely naked and the leaders of the Jews the crowds and the thieves on both sides of him were jeering swearing and laughing at him and addiction in addition Jesus's own mother was watching physiologically Jesus's body was undergoing a series of catastrophic and terminal events because Jesus could not maintain adequate ventilation of his lungs he was now in a state of hypoventilation which means inadequate ventilation his blood oxygen level began to fall and he developed hypoxia which is low blood oxygen some of y'all might know if you've ever been in the hospital they put that uh sensor on your finger and it measures the oxygen in your blood and it's one of the most important aspects or measurements in the hospital bed because if you get low blood oxygen you your organs can fail your brain can fail and and you it can lead to death so that's very important in addition to to that the low blood oxygen because of his restricted respiratory movements his blood carbon dioxide level began to rise a condition known as hypercapnia the rise in co2 level stimulated his heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen and the removal of co2 carbon dioxide the respiratory center in Jesus's brain sent urgent messages to his lungs to breathe faster and Jesus began to pant Jesus physiological reflexes demanded that he took deeper breaths and he involuntarily moved up and down the cross much faster despite the crusading pain the agonizing movement spontaneously started several times a minute to the delight of the crowd who jeered to him the Roman soldiers and the Sanhedrin however due to the nailing of the cross nailing of Jesus to the cross and his increasing exhaustion he was unable to provide more oxygen to his oxygen star body the twin forces of too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide caused his heart to be faster and faster and Jesus developed tachycardia Jesus's heart beat faster and faster and his pulse rate was probably about 220 beats a minute the maximum normally sustainable I mean I've been on the the treadmill or the the ellipto trainer and when I get up about 140 beats a minute my heart rate's at 140 and I'm I'm I'm working pretty good can you imagine being at 220 beats per minute but that's about what all you can sustain your heart's going to explode but that's where he was at Jesus had drunk nothing for about 15 hours since 6 p.m the previous evening so he was severely dehydrated Jesus had endured a scourging or a beating a whipping that nearly killed him he was bleeding from all over his body following that uh scourging the crown of thorns on his head the nails in his wrists and feet and the lacerations following his beatings and falls Jesus was already very dehydrated his blood pressure fell alarmingly his blood pressure was probably about 80 over 50 he was in first degree shock with low blood volume excessively fast heart rate excessively fast respiratory rate and excessive sweating by about noon Jesus heart probably began to fail Jesus lungs probably began to fill up with pulmonary edemia this only served to exacerbate his breathing which was already severely compromised Jesus was in heart failure and respiratory failure Jesus said I thirst because his body was crying out for for fluids and for liquids Jesus was in desperate need of an intravenous infusion of blood plasma and even water to save his life hydration Jesus could not breathe properly and was slowly suffocating to death at this stage Jesus probably developed a hemopericardium plasma and blood gathered in the space around his chest called the pericardium the fluid around his heart caused cardiac tamponade which means fluid around his heart which prevented Jesus heart from beating properly because of the increasing physiological demands on Jesus heart and the advanced state of hemopericardium Jesus probably eventually sustained cardiac rupture his heart we believe literally burst this is probably the cause of his death to slow the process of death the soldiers put a small wooden seat on the cross which would allow Jesus the privilege of bearing his weight on a sacrum on a seat the effect of this was that it could take up to nine days to die on a cross when the Romans wanted to expedite death they would simply break the legs of the victim causing the victim to suffocate in a matter of minutes this was called cruciferagram at three o'clock in the afternoon Jesus said it is finished at that moment Jesus gave up the spirit and he died when the soldiers came to Jesus to break his legs he was already dead not a bone of his body was broken in fulfillment of the prophecy that we read Jesus died after six hours the most excruciating and terrifying torture ever invented Jesus died so that ordinary people like you and me could live and have eternal life and we can go to heaven to be with our father our heavenly father the one that shows us amazing grace every day of our lives you know after reading this I am profoundly touched by the amazing grace of God and his absolute love for us what a horrible death Jesus endured at the cross what an incredible sacrifice that God has set forth in his plan of salvation for you and me for by grace we have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ and it's just like the famous song goes everybody is probably familiar with this song them the song called amazing grace it goes like this amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed through many dangers toys and snares we have already come to his grace that brought us safe this far and grace will lead us home the amazing grace of God will lead us home to eternal life how sweet God's graces to us and it and it's it we are saved by grace by our faith in Jesus Christ alone my hope for you is that you can be inspired by this podcast to understand the amazing grace of God and to receive his gift of salvation and redemption through faith in Jesus Christ alone believe upon the name of Jesus Christ and you will have a right to become a child of God a child of God is one who's been reborn and filled with God's Holy Spirit when they become when they come to when they come to believe in Jesus Christ and make him the Lord and Savior of their life I pray that that you will do this if you haven't already done so and and then if you if you already have done this and you were born again that you can take this message of hope this message of amazing grace of God and share it with all those who are lost those that are blind that cannot see the truth right now and I just want you to go out and share this message with them I love you all and I pray that you too can find the freedom that I have found in Jesus Christ Jesus breaks the change it was the amazing grace of God that found me in the captivity darkness and hell of my addiction and delivered me into freedom I was blind and now I see I was lost but now I am found it's found by Jesus Christ and saved by the amazing grace of God this is the greatest life I've ever lived living my life in Jesus Christ as his fearless disciple God bless you all in Jesus name I pray amen thank you for listening for more information on Michael Bowen's ministry sons and daughters of thunder visit sons and daughters of thunder.org and remember there is no addiction in Jesus Christ Jesus breaks the chains this is the truth network