1 John 4: 8b-10 (NIV) "God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
Let’s cut right to the chase…one of the things that makes Christianity different from every other world religion is the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ….
Many ask, “Why would a loving God send His Son to die on a cross?” and the answer to that is… because not only is God Loving, He is also Holy and Just. We simply cannot separate those 3 qualities away from one another in our understanding of and approach toward God….
I, along with many of you, have often compared my own “goodness” to the “goodness” present (or lack thereof) in others….but that is an exercise in futility and certainly not the point….what is the point, is that when we compare ourselves in relationship to the goodness and holiness of Almighty God… we simply find that we do not and never will measure up…..Scripture tells us in Romans 3:23 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...."
Many in today’s world, would simply rather focus only on God’s goodness…. separating, as I mentioned before, God’s justice and holiness from His Divinity; which despite of all of His goodness, require payment and accountability for our sin….these are the parts of God’s attributes that many choose to often just overlook or deny….but to do so, denies the very truth that we NEEDED Christ’s death on the cross and leaves out a very vital piece of the gospel message….To overlook the necessity of Jesus’ death on the cross, is to insinuate that we can somehow approach God on our own, apart from Jesus’sacrificial death….if this had ever been the case, then certainly God in His infinite wisdom, would never have allowed His only begotten Son to perish on a cross in the first place….
The Word tells us in Romans 6:23 a... “the wages of sin is death.” Therefore, a death was required by God to atone for the sin of all people… Why? well, Leviticus 17:11 explains this more clearly when it says....."For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." In light of the explanation given in Lev. 17:11, God, in His great Love for all mankind, sought the solution for us, once and for all by coming to earth in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, shedding His blood and dying on our behalf for the payment of death that was required in response to our sin by none other than..... His Holiness and Justice…. and so, there we see them again, those 3 seemingly unlikely companions…the Holiness, Justice and Love of God all intermingled on our behalf, accusing us and yet working to save us at the same time…
My Friends, as we remember the death of our Savior over the coming few weeks, may we also remember that the purpose of the cross was to ensure that "whosoever will" can come to God, and do so through the atoning power of Christ’s death….My pastor once said “The cross was as bad as it was because our sin is as bad as it is and we won't recognize the value of the cross until we recognize that we caused it!"
Perhaps you have never quite considered the purpose of the cross from this perspective before, but I assure you that God did. It will well serve your life and the lives of those around you, if you make some time the next few weeks to consider and take seriously the fact that the invitation to "whosoever will" still freely stands…If you haven’t done so already, won’t you accept His invitation? The work was completed for you by Jesus...all you need do is come to Him as you are....
Remember to drop on over to http://holleygerth.com/ to give your heart a bit more lift! Also, remember to join me again on Monday, April 28th at 10 AM EST on Life On The Grow Blog Talk Radio when I'll return to begin my regularly scheduled broadcast! Have a safe and blessed Easter!
