This answer is both incredibly simple and wildly deep. Yes, the Sunday school answer of “Jesus died for my sin” is correct! But do you understand the gravity of that statement?
See, Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus hung on that cross “for the JOY set before Him.”
Do you know what that joy was?
YOU! Your heart! Your freedom! Your access into the throne room of God! God didn’t just forgive or forget our sin on the cross. Jesus bore the full weight of it. He paid the full price.
And that price wasn’t cheap! It wasn’t somehow easier for Him because He was God in the flesh. He was stripped naked, beaten to the brink of death, forced to carry a 200 pound cross up a hill, nailed to a cross, and suffocated to death… all while being mocked and spit on. The nails were even strategically placed on the nerves so that each time He raised His body to breath, it would be pure agony. He endured this for hours before finally giving up His Spirit.
And He considered you when He did this. He joyfully took on this torture, just for the chance of spending eternity with you… not even a guarantee! All just to be able to invite you into relationship! What kind of LOVE is that?!?
See, the Gospel isn’t just that you get to be with Him one day. You don’t just have to hold on and do your best until you die. The Gospel is that Jesus made a way for us to have abundant life NOW (John 10:10)! We have access to the Father now!
The Gospel isn’t just that we are forgiven. It doesn’t stop there. The Gospel is that we have now been made co-heirs with Christ. When the Father looks at us He sees Jesus. The Gospel is that full reconciliation, redemption, and healing are offered to us. Just like with the woman at the well (John 4), Jesus refused to let the Gospel stop anywhere short of healing our deepest shame. We have the invitation to walk in the full freedom of beloved identity. Just like Moses in Exodus 3, our identity is now defined as the one who God desires to walk with.
The promise of the Gospel isn’t that we will get to have easy, comfortable, blessed lives. It’s actually quite the opposite. We are promised hardships. But, we are promised that we never have to walk alone. There is no giant that we will ever have to stare down on our own. We forever have a mighty warrior on our side, no matter what giant stands before us.
I can’t promise you where He will lead you in life. But I can promise you that you will never find a place of such love, purpose, and identity.
And please know that there is nothing you can ever do to earn this gift. In 1 Samuel 30, David goes to war with 600 men. 200 of them stop at a river, because they are too weak to cross it. The 400 men go with David and win the war. When they come back, the 400 men tell David that none of the 200 should receive any of the spoils of the victory… they didn’t fight. God calls those 400 men wicked and worthless in that moment.
Here is the truth, one of the most wicked things in the eyes of the Father is to withhold His gift because someone didn’t earn it. There is nothing you can do to earn this free gift that Jesus offered on Good Friday. It is simply given freely. To every single person. Regardless of if you feel like you’ve gone to battle or sat by the river in laziness.
But the other truth is this: The invitation alone isn’t enough. Simply knowing facts about Jesus isn’t enough.
In Luke 14 there is a parable about a feast. 3 men are invited. All say no for various reasons. One just got married. One just bought some land. One just bought some oxen. The master gets angry, sends out for everyone else in the city, and says those 3 men will never enter the feast.
Please hear me: Following Jesus is COSTLY! Notice that none of those 3 things were bad things. All 3 of them were good things. Yet these men miss the feast because they were unwilling to let go of their control over good things. And missing the feast isn’t just some deeper level of intimacy with the Father. Missing the feast is missing relationship with Him altogether.
Following Jesus is ALL or nothing. There is no middle ground. And that is really really hard. But let me tell you, it is so so so worth it! Like I said earlier, you will never find a place of such love, purpose, and identity. You will never find a place of such joy and peace.
But the invitation of the cross alone will never be enough. Knowing facts about Jesus will never be enough. The invitation to the feast is not what qualified those men for the relationship. Their response is what determined the outcome for them.
The invitation of the cross is there for you today. You can step into the fullness of relationship with the Father… the fullness of love, purpose, identity, joy, and peace. But it will cost you. It will cost you comfort. It will cost you dreams. It will cost you popularity. It will cost you control. But I promise what He has for you is so much better than your wildest dreams… even if that means hardships!
So I challenge you with some questions today… Do you KNOW Jesus? Or do you just know facts about Him? Are you the woman at the well who has a heart to worship? Or are you Nicodemus who simply wants a factual understanding of Him? Are you the men who are invited to the feast, but refuse to let go of their own control? Or are you Elisha who will drop everything to follow Him?
The greatest desire of the Father’s heart is to KNOW you. He killed His son, just for the chance that you would allow Him to KNOW you. You will never find a LOVE like that anywhere else. It is WILD, RECKLESS, and unlike anything else in this world!
“Dios te guarde y bendiga. Que extienda Su amor y te muestre favor. Dios te mire con agrado y te dé paz”
“The Lord bless you and keep you. Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace”
Amen
That word Amen isn’t just how you end a prayer. It means, “Yes, so let it be.” It is to ask for the Lord to do whatever He wants. That is my prayer over your life today! I pray that you would say yes to His invitation to have His way in your life!
