Reflections on the Cross

For me, the next week looms as one of the busiest of the year. So, before getting immersed in a long list of tasks and meetings, I thought it prudent to reflect on the nature of what we remember this week.

1. The cross was completely unnecessary. God could have chosen to leave us in our sins and rebellion and He could have struck us all dead and banished us to hell. There would have been no cry of "unfair,' for it is truly what each one of us deserves. God was not under a moral obligation to save us. His righteous anger with our sin is completely justified.

2. The cross was absolutely necessary for my salvation (and yours too.) God could not forgive sin, waive the death penalty, and still be considered holy and righteous. If the president granted full immunity to Osama Bin Laden, we would scream out that it was unfair to let this murderer go free. In the same way, if God had merely ignored our sin, all creation would have cried out "unfair!" But God proves both His love and His justice on the cross. His moral perfection demanded a payment be made for sin, and so that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. He accepted the full blast of God's wrath towards sin on the cross. Without the cross, either I needed to pay the price myself (death and hell), or God had to compromise His moral perfection. Neither would be a good option for me, so for my sake, the cross was completely necessary.

3. In America, we take it for granted that we have rights and we deserve a "good life." Our thinking (and often our words) often focus on how unfair things are. Every time we don't get our own way, we immediately blame God for allowing us to "suffer" so much. Never mind that the suffering we endure may only be to not get everything we want as soon as we want it. We think that by being born we deserve to have everything that our hearts can dream of desiring. It's only when we understand the nature of what happened on the cross that we can come to understand that the only thing in life we are entitled to have is death and hell. Everything we get that is better than death and eternal torment in hell is a gift of a loving and merciful God. Not only do we escape His wrath, but by trusting in what He accomplished on the cross, we have assurance that we can have our deepest longings and desires FULLY satisfied for all of eternity as we spend it with Him. I deserved the cross, but Jesus took it in my place.