“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:12-14
I’ve never had someone risk his life to pull me out of a fire or step in front of a bullet for me. As I think back, though, there have been plenty of people who gave their lives for me in various ways. My mother sacrificed much to raise her children after a painful divorce. Friends all along my life path have spoken hard words that I didn’t want to hear… because I needed to hear them. In recent years, my dear wife, faithful pastor, and several friends have died to self in order to step into my rebellion and speak truth to me because they loved me enough to get in my face.
Yes, if a friend gave his or her physical life for me that would be amazing. But for the Son of God, the Sinless One, to pay my penalty — death, so that I could walk free and experience relationship with God — now that is astounding, unthinkable, truly amazing. Nothing in human language is adequate to express gratitude for such love.
The refrain from the Charles Wesley hymn, “And Can It Be” comes close: “Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me!”
Do you ever feel like you are not worth saving? Perhaps you have made so many mistakes in your life that it seems there is no way back. God wants you to know that it is never too late to return to Him. Receive His amazing love today!
Lord Jesus, I don’t know why you loved me enough to give your life and sacrifice your relationship with your Father to save me and reconcile me to God. I am so grateful that through your obedience you were not only restored to your Father, but you also rescued me. With the hymn writer, I proclaim your amazing love today! Amen.
By Rand Kreycik
Used by Permission
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