Day 7: Holy Saturday

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.