The Logic of Love

Romans 5:9 We have been made right with God by the blood sacrifice of Christ. So through Christ we will surely be saved from God’s anger.

There’s something that has bothered me for many years. And maybe  as we turn our thoughts towards Christmas, it’s been bothering you too. Why did God send Jesus to our world, to become a man, ultimately to die on a Cross, allegedly to pay for our sins so that we could be forgiven? Why didn’t he just forgive us and be done with it? Much cleaner.

And you know what? For the first several years after putting my faith in Jesus, after becoming one of those so-called “Christians”, I still didn’t have an answer to that question: Why couldn’t God just forgive us without sending Jesus to the cross; without asking us to believe in Him in order to be saved from our sin?

Because let me tell you, without an answer to that question, this whole Christmas thing simply doesn’t make sense. I needed to – we need to – understand the logic that lies behind this greatest of all love-transactions – the crucifixion of Jesus for our sins.

Romans 5:9 We have been made right with God by the blood sacrifice of Christ. So through Christ we will surely be saved from God’s anger.

Or more literally, from God’s wrath – and that’s the point that our very own justice system – created as it was by men and women made in the very image of God – underscores.

An act of injustice demands punishment. That’s just how it works. And all our acts of rebellion against God rightly deserve His anger, His wrath, His justice to be unleashed on us.

But out of His great love, He unleashed it on His Son through His blood sacrifice on that cross. So that… through Christ we will surely be saved from God’s anger.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.