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 A Romance of Redemption (April 7, 2023)

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

On this Good Friday, as Christians commemorate the death of Jesus Christ and rejoice that He was raised to life three days later, believers can be eternally grateful for the matchless love that compelled the Son of God to redeem us of our sins and save our souls. Each day, we should seek to express to each other this godly love that is the essence of Easter and the very nature of our LORD. Far exceeding human understanding, the love of God is sacrificial, unconditional, boundless, forever enduring, and freely given to every one of us because we are His creations, crafted in His image. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s love or to lose it. Our heavenly Father simply wants us to joyfully receive His love and accept His gracious offer of salvation through faith in Christ. As God incarnate, Jesus was born to die so that we can have the blessed assurance of spending eternity with our risen LORD in the paradise of heaven.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

As the late Bible scholar Chuck Missler noted, it was not the nails that held Jesus on that cursed old cross; it was a divine love for you, me, and all of humanity that kept Him penned to that tree. Not desiring that anyone should perish and be separated from His love eternally, at Calvary God poured out His affection for all of humanity through Christ in the greatest expression of love in human history. A romance of redemption, it is the ultimate love story! Believers are the beneficiaries of what Missler called “a love letter written in blood on a wooden cross erected in Judea 2,000 years ago.” This Easter and for the rest of our earthly lives, as best we humanly can, let’s honor and glorify our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ by passing His perfect love forward into a world of hatred and strife. Through our acts of lovingkindness, faithful obedience, and humble service, the world cannot help but see the love and life of Jesus in us!

This Easter, let’s echo the Apostle Paul’s prayer: “…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)



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