Each Sunday in this Lenten season we have been presented with the central truth of Scripture, Jesus is the world’s Savior, with a slightly different focus. Today we highlight this key truth by remembering that through his painful suffering and death, Jesus has won forgiveness and eternal life for all.
Difficult Lessons of Lent: Salvation Is Not Our Doing
The cross is not some incidental part of the story of God's love for us. The cross is the place where that love is revealed most of all. The love of God cannot be told without the cross and where the cross is raised up; God will draw all people to himself. As Jesus was lifted up on the tree of the cross, so are we lifted up by that tree, raised up from our death and sin through Christ's forgiveness. This is our glory and comfort and this is the message that God has given to us to proclaim to the world.
Difficult Lessons of Lent: There Is No Room for Sin
Do we come to church merely out of a sense of reluctant duty or is there a sense of purpose, devotion, enthusiasm, and passion? Unfortunately our attitude may be, at best, a combination of the two. The Word today takes our eyes off ourselves, our mixed motives, our shallow hopes and focuses them on the purpose, enthusiasm, passion, and zeal of God's saving love. If we are to be saved, God must take the initiative. And he has done so. As he gives us his heart in the Ten Commandments, so he gives us new hearts, baptizing us into the zeal of Christ's love by which alone he declares us righteous. Connected to Christ's resurrection our hope is firmly planted in him.
Difficult Lessons of Lent: Life for God's Children Can Be Painful
Each of us has our own ideas of what is fair. When we actually see the price of that new car on the sticker in the window, however, we may be shocked that it's much more than we imagined. That's why they call it "sticker shock." So the common, sinful idea regarding what God expects of us usually consists in "being good" or some other quality in ourselves. When God sent his Son to save us we may be shocked that it would take nothing less than his own suffering and cruel death on the cross. It is a price far beyond what we are able to pay. But it has been paid for us. In gratitude for the blessings that are ours in Jesus’ cross, we take up our own cross and follow the Savior’s will for us as we journey toward heaven.