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OUR PASTOR’S PEN

THE JUST DYING FOR THE UNJUST 

The true impact of the message of the cross is too often overlooked by the church, overlooked, because we are so familiar with its message.  Sometimes we become so familiar with something that the meaning loses its impact upon us.  And to a large degree, this is what has happened to the church when it comes to the message of the cross.

Jesus’ death on the cross was not easy; it was accompanied with outward torture and inward agony.  In just those few hours on the cross He suffered the total agony of every soul for all eternity.  The death that He faced on the cross was a death for the curse of sin.  Not His sin, because He had no sin.  The death that He tasted was brought upon Him because of my sin and your sin.  He willing chose to suffer the weight of all sin committed for all time.

Let us not be so familiar with the message of the cross that it fails to impact our hearts each time that we hear it.  Why did He suffer for people such as we are?  Love!  John said, “For God ‘so loved’ the world, that he ‘gave’ his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God substituted the death of Christ for ours, and in so doing, He released us from sin to salvation.

Scripture:  King James Version:

John 3:16; Galatians 4:4-5; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8

By:  Jerry W. Arnold

All Rights Reserved

(October 2010)