Thanks to Calvary

Today, I went down to the place where I used to go
Today, I saw the same old crowd I knew before
And when they asked me what had happened, I tried to tell them,
Thanks to Calvary, I don't come here anymore.

Thanks to Calvary I am not the man I used to be
Thanks to Calvary things are different than before.
And as the tears ran down my face I tried to tell them,
Thanks to Calvary, I don't come here anymore.

“Thanks to Calvary” by Bill Gaither, another Ol’-Time Religion song you don’t hear anymore.  This weekend while I watched and listened to Jefferson Bethke (author of “Jesus > Religion”) give his testimony, which is good but different, I found myself still coming back to this song and my own experiences.  Even though everyone’s experience or journey with Jesus is different, everyone I’ve ever met who knows Christ will agree that “Thanks to Calvary (they) are not the (person) (they) used to be.”

These thoughts led me to a paragraph early in R. A. Torrey’s book “The Presence and Work of the Holy Spirit” which says the following. 

“If it had not been for the love of God the Father looking down upon me in my utter ruin and providing a perfect atonement for me in the death of His own Son on the cross of Calvary, I would have been in hell today.  If it had not been for the love of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, looking upon me in my utter ruin and, in obedience to the Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven for all the shame of earth and taking my place, the place of the curse, upon the cross of Calvary and pouring out His life utterly for me, I would have been in hell today.  But if it had not been for the love of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in answer to the prayer of the Son, leading Him to seek me out in my utter blindness and ruin, I would have been in hell today.”

Today, I am thankful that God never gave up on me even when I did.  I am thankful that he hunted me down like the animal I am and slayed me with an everlasting love.  I am thankful that when I called out saying, "If you won't kill me then do something because I can't!", He answered immediately, simply saying, "That's all I've been waiting on you to understand."

I thank God today for His forgiveness and His love which surpasses all my understanding and all of myself.