Holy Saturday is a day of waiting. It
is the day of the closed tomb. We wait to see what will happen. We wait in
anticipation for the great work of God.
There are two sides to the cross. On
one hand, the cross is condemnation, it is judgment upon sin. It stands as a
reminder of the horror of sin and its ultimate cost. We focused on this reality
of the cross yesterday. But that is not the whole story. We also must
remember that Jesus did this for us ultimately out of love. The crucifixion that Jesus endured was born of God’s great unquenchable love for His
people. He desired to save us, to rescue us from sin, and bring us back
to Himself.
It seems counterintuitive to look at
the cross and see love. But this is exactly what John tells us in his first
letter: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for
us,” 1 John 3:16. Because God loves us and desires to restore relationship with us, God did what
we could never do. Jesus atoned for sin in his own body, so that we could have
fellowship with God. Why did Jesus accept the cross? The writer of Hebrews
tells us that because of “the joy set before him.” It was for this: the joy of
relationship and communion that Jesus went to the cross. And Hebrews also tells
us that because of the cross, God “will remember their sins no more.” All condemnation is gone and only joy remains for those who are united to God
through the atoning suffering of Jesus.
The motivation behind the cross is
God’s deep love for his people, that he would rather take sin upon himself than
condemn us for it. And the result of the cross is love, the possibility that we
can enter into a relationship and experience of God’s great love and
acceptance. Perhaps the most famous Bible verse sums it up best: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only
Son….”
Easter is about love. Do you know
God’s love? Do you know that God loves you and accepts you? Have you opened
your heart to receive that kind of love? It is a life-transforming love. No one
who feels it and receives it can remain the same. We are made new in God’s love.
The old is gone and the new has come.