The Lovely Christ who, from birth was cast upon the loving care of His Father (Psalm 22:10) and who abandoned Himself to the kind intentions in His Father’s heart from the time he drew nourishment from His mother’s breast (verse 9), trusts His Father to maintain that level of tender concern. As He sinks down beneath the fists of His enemies who tear his flesh like lions devouring their pray (verse 13), although in torture, He is not confused about His mission. Every moment that brings some new explosion of pain, some new cruelty, He can hear the words still echoing in His heart, “Here am I. Send me!” (Like Isaiah in Isaiah 6:8). He endures the spitting, the disfigurement and the slaughter, still entrusting Himself to the tender heart of His Father. “Here I am” He said, “—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7,9, Psalm 40:6-8). This thought I find more wonderful than I can articulate.

Psalm 40, quoted in Hebrews 10:7, 9 goes further by adding another phrase, “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” We have spoken about those in Hebrews 11 who accomplished outstanding feats by faith. They were moved by what they saw, not only in Christ Himself, but in the eternal thrills that lay ahead. Here we see the great Author of our faith undergoing immense barbarities, yet His heart pulsates with desire. His eyes are filled with the adorable Object of His desires—the breathtakingly beautiful God! Everything God is, everything He stands for, every moral fibre exudes the oil of beauty and desirableness. Because Jesus is so enthralled by the beautiful God, He is able not only to endure the horrors to which He is subjected, but to thrive in them. He desires to do it. He desires to do what enraptures His Father’s heart.

In the experience of the fallen sinner—and I hate to make such an abrupt change here, but must to make my point—the only thing that drives him on with such passion is his sin. Is it not hideous, the degree to which you and I will go in order to satisfy our desire for a sinful pleasure. I have seen men who will walk the skin off their feet to get their next fix; Men who will engage in knife fights in order to gain a sexual experience with a particular woman; People who will plummet into poverty to hit that huge jackpot at the casino; People who will run themselves into ruin for that next drink; People who will drive themselves to exhaustion to get rich. Is it not bizarre that your and my hearts are equipped with the capacity to so pursue the object of our desires that no inconvenience, no pain, no cost will be too high a price for us to attain the fulfilment of those desires; Yet, when it comes to the Christian life, suddenly the sense of urgency vanishes? Even a tiny sacrifice on the part of a sinner for Christ seems to be magnified in his mind to the status of heroic.