THE GIFT OF JESUS: CHOSEN THE CROSS

Let's read the following Bible verses to start:

John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world, that he has given his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not be lost, but have eternal life."

Romans 5: 8 says: "But God shows His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

1 John 4:10 says: "This is what love is about: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son in propitiation for our sins."

Source

Often, people get tangled up with my name: Beverly. From time to time, they understand it and call me what it is: B-e-v-e-r-l-y. But sometimes they get confused and call me Bervely, or Beth, or Bed, or Ber. They also called me Kimberley. What if I had saved my birth name when I got married? If Beverly is complicated, what would they have done with "Unterweger"?

I struggle with being merciful to those who pronounce my name wrong. But I also want to be precise. I want to be kind, but I also want to be honest. How can I be both at the same time?

“On an infinitely larger scale, God confronts humanity in the same way that one faces people who don't know how to pronounce one's name well. How can God be fair and kind at the same time? How can you be truthful and merciful at the same time? How can he redeem the sinner without endorsing sin? Can a holy God ignore our faults? Can a kind God punish our faults? From our perspective, there are only two equally unappealable solutions: being holy, we should be punished for our mistakes; or being kind, he could overlook our sins. But from God's perspective there is a third solution. This is called "the cross of Christ." (ML)

"The cross. Can you look anywhere without seeing one? Perched on top of a chapel. Sculpted in a gravestone in the cemetery. Carved in a ring or suspended from a chain. The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. Strange decision, don't you think? I miss an instrument of torture coming to represent a movement of hope. The symbols of other religions are more optimistic: David's six-pointed star, the crescent moon of Islam, a lotus flower of Buddhism. But a cross for Christianity? An instrument of execution? Would you put a small electric chair on your neck? Would you hang a gallows of silver gold on the wall? Would you print a photo of an execution squad on a business card? Of course not. But that is what we do with the cross. ”(ML)

“Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer you don't have to go beyond the cross itself. Consider a moment in its design: one horizontal and the other vertical. One looking out, as does the love of God. The other up, as does the holiness of God. One represents the width of His love. The other reflects the height of His holiness. The cross is the intersection of the two. The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards. How could he do such a thing? In one sentence: God put our sins on His Son and punished them there. ”(ML)

2 Corinthians 5:21 says: "He who knew no sin did sin for us, that we might be made righteousness of God in Him."
Visualize the moment. God on His throne. You on earth. And between you and God, suspended between you and heaven is Christ on His cross. Your sins have been placed on Jesus. God, who punishes sin, releases His righteous anger over your faults. Jesus receives the outbreak. As Christ is between you and God, you do not receive it. Sin is punished, but you are safe, safe in the shadow of the cross.

“Let's think about what God did for us. God to His Son. His only son. Would you do such a thing? Would you offer your child's life for someone else's? I do not. There are some for whom I would give my life. But ask me to make a list of people for whom I would kill my son, and the paper would go blank. I wouldn't need a pen. The list would have no names. But God's list contains the names of each person who has lived. Because such is the scope of His love. And this is the raison d'être of the cross. He loves the world. ”(ML)

“How wide is the love of God? So wide that it includes the rich and the poor, the famous and the unknown, the thin and the fat, the young and the old, the Africans and the Europeans and the Latinos, etc., etc., etc. God's love is wide enough to cover the whole world. "Because God loved the world in such a way ..." Are you included in the world? If you are, then you are included in God's love ...when asked to describe the width of His love, Christ extended one hand to the right and the other to the left and they were nailed in that position so that you could know that He died loving you. ”(ML)

But doesn't this have a limit? Surely God's love has to have an end ... But Moses the murderer never found it. Jacob the deceiver never found him. David the adulterer never found him. Peter the liar never found him. Paul the persecutor of Christians never found him. In their respective experiences, they came to the bottom. But as for the love of God, such a thing never happened.

“They, like you, found their names on God's love list. And surely you can be sure that He who put them there knows how to pronounce them. ”(ML)

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