Have you ever loved someone so deeply that you would do anything for them? You would give them anything? In fact if it came right down to it, you would willingly give up your life in order to spare theirs.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 NIV
By the same token is there someone in your life who irks you to no end? They just really get under your skin? And, honestly, you wouldn’t walk across the street for them.
What if it came right down to it and one or the other of you had to die. Would you give up your life in order for them to live? It would be human nature to answer with an emphatic, “no.”
Well, I have good news. Jesus loves each of us so much that he willingly laid down his life for us — even though we have disappointed him, said terrible things to him and about him, blasphemed against him and ignored him.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 NIV
This should be a sobering thought. That he would do this for us when we really didn’t deserve it.
But he did. And in Godlike fashion, he had the ability to think about each of us by name as his life drained away. And no matter how awful we have been, he died to cleanse us from our ugliness and to present us as righteous before the Father.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 NIV
This is a very important step toward becoming a Christian. Admitting our transgressions before the Lord and asking him for forgiveness.
LORD, Your love is higher and wider and longer and deeper than we can fathom. Thank you for going to the cross on our behalf. May we forward your love to others around us today.
Amen!
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