Cruel, rugged, and mean. The nails. Designed for wood and invested with the power to bind, their purpose was inverted on that day to turn you and me from the lonely road to a bad end.
As Jesus lay at Golgotha, fastened to the rugged tree that sealed the transaction by those cruel nails, little did his assailants know that the nails had a place in the redemption story. The nails wounded Him. They tore through His flesh and onto the tree to keep Him hanging thereon. ‘… he was wounded for our transgressions …’
Transgressions called for His wounding. Mean. He bled. That blood is the blood of the new covenant that God now has with every willing soul – the covenant of life.
Thank God for the nails. Cruel, rugged, and mean. They wounded Him. He was wounded for my transgressions. He was crushed for my iniquities. The chastisement of my peace was upon Him! I now have life partly because there were those nails.
For those who reject His redemption, there is a cruel, rugged, and mean judgement ahead. Cruel, rugged, and mean described the nails that wounded the Saviour. Those words would also describe the destiny – eternal destiny, of those who reject the salvation that the Saviour mediates by His vicarious, substitutional death on the Cross of Calvary.
Flee from the wrath to come!