Octavius Winslow on the Cross
Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: Octavius Winslow, The Cross | Posted On Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 5:30 AM
“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy- but the Father, for love!”
Octavius Winslow
Very true.
It was the Father who delivered up Jesus to die.
Of course, Judas and Pilate and the Jews are still fully accountable to God for their heinous crime.
Because God's sovereignty does not remove man's complete culpability for his sin. (see Rom. 9:19-21)
The apostle Peter made this clear in his sermon on the day of Pentecost when he said to the people...
"Him [Jesus], being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"
Acts 2:23
In this verse we see both God's sovereignty and man's wickedness in the same act.
This reminds me of the account of Joseph in Genesis (chapters 37-50) where Joseph demonstrates the same perspective toward his brothers when he says...
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."
Gen. 50:20
Joseph recognized the evil of what his brothers did to him, But he also saw the goodness of God in the same act. God's loving purpose was triumphant over the wickedness of men here just as it was at the cross and just as it will be for us and all of God's children! Even though we may not see it now we can be assured that this is so (Rom. 8:28).