The lie began in the Garden with the notion that God was somehow holding out on man, that He wasn't forking over all the goodies, but holding back from him. This suspicion and fear, planted firmly in our first parents, has been successfully implanted in their progeny from generation to generation. But once it was exposed for the lie it is: by the Cross. For there is no looking at the Cross and not seeing how it reveals the lie.
Hold back on you? God does not hold back. Not anything good. He not only pours out His blood to blot out your sin, He not only gives over His life so that you might live through it, He lifts you up to divine sonship in His Kingdom, He gives you the first-fruits of His Spirit, He promises you a place at His table and in His home, He provides you with a life that outlasts all suffering and death, and He raises your body to immortality and clothes it in divine glory.
And this He does for those who take and nail Him to a tree. This He does for HIS ENEMIES. "For if while we were still enemies, Christ died for us, how much more we will be saved from wrath by Him!" St. Paul could write.
Behold, then, the life-giving Cross! Behold, then, the TRUTH, and see. Your God holds nothing from you - He gives you His Son to bear your sin; He gives you His Spirit to renew your life, He gives you Himself wholly.
"For this purpose I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth" the Lord Jesus says to Pilate. Glory to You, O Crucified and Risen One! Glory to You forever!
2 comments:
Well said! Jesus spared nothing through His suffering and death. He reveals God's heart to the world. All this that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom. Adam and Eve had that relationship in Eden. The loss of Eden revealed the even deeper love of God to recreate a new heaven and earth through the work of His beloved Son. In Christ the best is yet to come.
I learned this very important oracle for understanding your life and your faith, just this week:
"Every sin starts as a lie, and this is the lie that starts every sin: God – doesn’t – love – me."
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