Holy Week

I've been thinking a lot about this week and the price God was willing to pay for my sins. I can't even come up with an appropriate word for how great, how magnificent, how precious God's love is for me.

When I read about the betrayal - the selling of Jesus' life for money - by one of His closest companions; the denial, not once but 3 times, by another; the anguished prayer - Is there any other way?; the obedience - not My will but Yours; the trial; the mockery; the beatings; the crown of thorns; the journey up the hill; the nails; the spear; the pain; the weight of the sins He bore - my God, my God why have You forsaken Me? - I am overwhelmed with grief that I was part of that. MY sin nailed Jesus to the cross. MY sin cost Him so much pain. He was dead - in the tomb - because of MY sin!

But then I remember He said no one takes my life, I give it willingly. He also said "It is finished." He completed the mission God had given Him. And that tomb - it is empty!! Praise God, Jesus is ALIVE! Because He is alive, I, too, am alive. I am no longer dead in my sin because my sin has been forgiven. I never have to fear the wrath of God because Jesus paid it all - all the penalty that I should have paid.

So how do I express how great that love is? The holy, sinless Son of God loves me so much that He would suffer ANYTHING so that His Father becomes my Father; so that my sins are covered by His righteousness and my relationship with God, broken by sin, is restored.

But the real question becomes - what do I do with that love? Am I willing to join in the sufferings of Christ so that others may also know His love and His forgiveness? Or am I going to sit silently in my contentment as most of the the world heads for Hell and an eternity separated from God? My response to those questions is my true expression of how great that love is.