The Love of the Cross...

April 12, 2009

Danielle Joyner Kelley

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19.

Today, Easter Sunday, marks the greatest demonstration of love that has ever taken place in the history of mankind. “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.” 1 John 4:9.

In reading the Old Testament when I was younger one story used to cause me tension. Most of us know it: The story of Abraham and his son Isaac. According to Genesis Chapter 22, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain. As Abraham was about to do as God asked, God stopped him and said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Genesis 22:12.

That story used to puzzle me. Why would God ever ask one of his most loyal servants to sacrifice a son that he loved? I used to discuss this with my cousin whom I have always turned to for spiritual guidance because of her relationship with God. She would tell me that God stopped Abraham and did not make him go through with it. “But he asked him to at first”, I would reply. I couldn’t figure out why God would do that.

Then through my conversation with her it became clear to me. God didn’t make Abraham go through with sacrificing Isaac. He stopped him before he could actually do it. So Abraham did not have to sacrifice his son, but in the end God would sacrifice His own.

When we read the story of Abraham and Isaac we don’t want Isaac to die, and our hearts go out to Abraham for having to take the challenge. But he was spared in the end. God; however, was not spared from sacrificing His son, Jesus.

And He did not sacrifice Jesus for anything that Jesus did. He put it into motion because of what you and I have done, and He knew that because of our sin this would be the only way to reach Him because He is perfect and cannot be around sin. And Jesus and the Father are “One”. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.

He loves you that much. Enough to watch His Son suffer, enough to allow His sacrifice to save you, enough to allow His death and resurrection so you could be forgiven. Could any love ever measure to that? "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

So ask yourself when you find the storms of life approaching, does He not love you enough to calm them? To lead you beside the “still waters”? He promised He would. But you have to use that love, you have to use that power.

Of everything you have His love is where you start. The Cross on which your Savior died is the beginning of your life. It was what had to happen to allow you to have the chance at salvation, forgiveness, and to enter the kingdom and be with the Father when you leave this Earth. And this I am 100% sure of – at some point, you will leave this Earth and at that moment you will not need a house, money, cars, material things, addictions, or anything else. There is only one need you will have and it will be the greatest need you have ever known: Jesus.

And He is available to you now – every minute of every day. And the Father’s love put it all into action for you.

If you ever feel unloved, remember that. There is more love out there than you could ever know. And NOTHING you do will diminish that love. The Cross is a constant that will not diminish in its importance. It is where you begin.

You have something that has been given to you that you never even asked for and it is the biggest gift that could ever be. Use it.

And know God never asks anything of us that He is not willing to go 100 times over on Himself. And He never leaves you in what He asks of you.

Sacrifice is giving something over for a better reason. Give yourself over to a better reason. Let Him take control of your life. Let Him go through your problems with you, trust Him to fix them all. Grow your faith, and know you will be taken care of.

But you must start with the Cross. Simply put, the foundation of everything is His love. There is no bigger display of it than that Cross and the beautiful Man who died up on it.

And remember every time you have to give your problems over to Him, and you hate the sacrifices you are having to make in life to remain obedient, a bigger sacrifice was paid for you.

A sacrifice that shows love so strong it defeated the grave so that you could love eternally with your Father.

Truly amazing…