New Believers Bible - Flipbook - Page 88
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A15
HOW YOU CAN KNOW GOD
of a Holy God, and with the other hand he took hold of the sinful human race.
As crude nails were pounded into his hands, he bridged the gap for us!
We must not forget, however, that three days after his crucifixion, Jesus rose
from the dead! If it is true that “you can’t keep a good man down,” then it is even
truer that you can’t keep the “God-man” down
The necessity of the death of Jesus Christ on the
cross shows just how radical our situation was as
fallen people. It’s been said that you can tell the
depth of a well by how much rope is lowered. When
we look at “how much rope was lowered” from heaven,
we realize how grave our situation really was.
For that reason, don’t blame the people of that day for putting Jesus on the
cross. We are just as guilty as they. In reality, it was not the Roman soldiers
who put him on the cross, nor was it the Jewish leaders: it was our sins that
made it necessary for Jesus to volunteer for this torturous and humiliating
death.
Read the verses and notes below to see exactly what Jesus did for us.
1. The Greatest Demonstration of Love (see Romans 5:6-8, page 1009).
Jesus did not die for us while we were his friends but while we were his
enemies, opposing him by our sinfulness. Yet, in spite of all of this, God
demonstrated his love for us by dying on the cross. In this verse, the apostle
Paul explains that Jesus did not simply die for humanity as a whole but that
he died for us as individuals. Elsewhere, Paul writes, “[Christ] loved me and
gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Whenever you are tempted to doubt God’s love for you, take a long look at
the cross on which Jesus died. Then realize that, for all practical purposes, it
was not nails that held him to the cross, but love.
2. Forsaken That We Might Be Forgiven (see Luke 23:32-49, page 935).
Many of us have heard this story at some point in our lives. Yet the significance behind this heart-wrenching scene is often missed or misunderstood.
This was not simply some “good teacher” being crucified for his beliefs. It
was God in human form who hung on that cross, bridging the gap between
sinful people and a holy God.
