Why the Cross? - Part 3

To begin with, let us recap five important truths which the Cross teaches us:

1.      The cross shows us what God thinks of sin.

2.      The cross is God’s provision of salvation for sinners.

3.      The cross is a revelation of God’s love.

4.      The cross proves that there is only one way of being saved and coming to God.

5.      The cross proves that Jesus’ claims are genuine.

We saw, in the last two articles, how the cross shows us what God thinks of sin. On the cross Jesus endured God’s punishment for sin, so we can conclude that if God poured out His wrath even on His own Son, when He took upon Himself sins He had never committed, then surely God cannot tolerate sin. He judges and punishes every sin.

We also saw that the cross is God’s provision of salvation because Jesus died as a substitute for sinners, and endured God’s punishment in their place. Jesus died in the place of all who believe in Him, and so everyone who puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and is thus united to Him, is freed from God’s wrath and accepted as God’s child.

Let us now think about how the cross reveals God’s love. The Scripture text that we should look at is Romans 5:8:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

There are three things to observe from this text. In the first place, we must note that God’s love is different from our love. The text says that “God demonstrates his own love”. His love is not like ours. When we say, “I love ice-cream,” or “I love soccer,” we mean that there is something in ice-cream or soccer which is pleasing to us. They have some natural attraction for us. Even when our love is more noble, it is still based on the inherent worth of the thing which we love. If a man says, “I married my wife because I loved her,” he implies that something about her was very attractive to him.

But God’s love was not a response to anything that was pleasing or attractive in us. The text says that Christ died for us “while we were still sinners.” In other words, God didn’t give up His Son because He saw anything good or attractive in His people; to the contrary, Christ died in spite of the fact that we had nothing to offer God. He died for His people while they were still rebelling against God.

And here, is a great encouragement: nobody is too bad or sinful to be saved by Christ, or to be loved by God. Christ was not given for people who are shining stars of goodness and virtue; He was given for sinners. You may come to Christ right now. You don’t have to make yourself good enough before coming to Him.

Secondly, we learn from the text that God’s love is great. God did not merely toss out a few impersonal tokens of His love, as we might give a beggar some of our left-over coins. He gave the most costly gift of all: His own beloved Son. This proves the greatness of God’s love. You would not give up one of your kidneys unless you really loved the one to whom you give it. Christ would not have endured the agony and shame of the cross if He had not loved deeply those for whom He died. God would not have allowed His Son to suffer so if He had not loved His people very deeply.

Do you not long for a love that is stronger, deeper, more tender than a mother’s love for her child? God invites you to the cross to drink deeply from the fountain of His love.

Thirdly, the Cross proves that God’s love is real. Every one of God’s infinitely perfect qualities - except His love - could have been satisfied without the cross. God’s holiness, justice and righteous anger at sin could all have been satisfied by condemning every sinner to eternal punishment in hell. But His love - His love led Him to make a way of salvation for sinners so that they could share in His happiness. Even though that salvation was so costly, God’s love would not allow Him to leave sinners in their misery. Indeed, if God were not love, there never would have been a message of good news telling about the shameful crucifixion of a man called Jesus Christ. The ancient world would never have mocked at those who preached that message, and sinners would still be plunging to their destruction. Is there any god to compare with our God: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6)?

My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?