God aspires to the indestructible fellowship
with mankind. To do so, He pursues many
paths: even the one of the cross. No obligation,
no constraint: God loves first, and His love is
boundless.
Good Friday is the image of God’s full and
perfect love. Nothing makes the will of God
more concrete and His salvation more
conscious than His sending His Son to sinful
mankind. Jesus takes the blame, suffers, and
dies. And He loves everyone.
The love of God is unique
God’s love is unique in many ways. It is so
great that He sacrificed His Son: “For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16).
This is likely the best known declaration of
God’s love. It is an excerpt from the discussion
that Jesus had with the Pharisee Nicodemus
two thousand years ago.
However, the love of God is even unique when
considered from a temporal point of view. The
compassion of the Almighty existed before all
sins, but also before all good deeds: “In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins” (1 John 4: 10).
And God’s love is indestructible: neither man’s
fall in Paradise nor the many violations in the
course of human history have caused His love
for man to diminish. God loves the world—as
hostile as it often is to Him—continually and
unrestricted. Such is the love of God.
The only begotten Son of God
“Through His suffering and death, Christ the
Mediator reconciles mankind with God and
creates redemption from sin and death.
Thereby the words of John the Baptist are
fulfilled: ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!’ (John 1: 29).
Through His sacrificial death the Lord has
broken the power of Satan and overcome death
(Hebrews 2: 14). Since Jesus resisted all the
temptations of Satan and remained without sin,
He was able to take the sins of all humanity
upon Himself (Isaiah 53: 6), and through His
blood was able to acquire the merit whereby
all guilt of sin can be washed away. His life,
which He gave for the sinner, is the ransom.
His sacrificial death opens up the way for
mankind to come to God.” This is how the New
Apostolic Catechism summarises it (CNAC
3.4.9.5). Christ is the way, not man through
his strength, wisdom, nature, and ideas.
Saving faith in Christ
“For God did not send His Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved” (John 3: 17).
Belief in the Crucified leads to eternal
fellowship with God. God wants to save. He
does not want to judge! God wants to lead, He
does not want to persuade.
Salvation for all people
“God’s actions are aimed at making salvation
accessible to mankind. His will to save applies
to all people in the past, the present, and the
future” (CNAC 10). Eternal fellowship with God
and victory over evil … that is the will of God.
God loves, helps, and saves—without any
limits. For God no sacrifice was and is too big.
Good Friday is the day on which the love of
God unfolds all its greatness.
May it become silent within us Christians on
Good Friday as we remember Christ’s
sacrificial death, feel His inexhaustible love,
and hope for eternal life with God.
Comments
Post a Comment