Love
What is it that we want more than anything? What is it that children crave, and teens awkwardly seek, and adults often try to earn? Is it not love and acceptance? What a difference love and acceptance make in the life of a child. The stories of children in over run orphanages in Russia who die because of not receiving love and attention they desperately need, even though they have their basic physical needs met. The stories of youth despairing because they feel rejection and as if there is nowhere for them to belong and be loved. The stories of adults giving away the best years of their lives in pursuit of success which they hope will enable them to feel loved and accepted.
The Cross of Christ
The story of the cross is one of love, but not just love and acceptance, but true love which has destroyed the barriers to life and acceptance. The cross of Christ, by way of His substitutionary death has secured for us forgiveness because He took upon himself our guilt. If He is only man, then he cannot do this for he would be an unaffiliated third party. But being God, Jesus is uniquely qualified to be the one who forgives because ultimately all sin is against God and only the one offended can forgive the offense. And since God is righteous, all sin must be dealt with and not simply winked at and let slide. So, on the cross we see love, mercy, justice, and righteousness meet so that we might be forgiven, restored, and shown how much we are loved. But the story doesn’t end there. The resurrection of Christ shows us hope for the future…but for today, this Good Friday, we celebrate the death of Christ for by it we know that we are loved of God. We don’t have to earn it. For God loved when we were as far off as we could be. But praise God we have been brought home by the love of God through the reconciling death of Christ. We have what we need most, a true, informed, and unconditional love from the one whose opinion of us matters most.
God’s Word
And in this line of thought, it is good to meditate on God’s Word which tells us of this great love.
Eph 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Eph 3:18-19 “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Gal 2:20 “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
1 John 4:16-21 “16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
What a blessing it is to have God’s Word which tells us of the love of God which changes us, gives us hope, and leads us to worship.
Rob