Mark,
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Permit me to try a comparison here with Gods way of salvation through Christ and something close to home.
Imagine that there are two groups of people before you. One group is guilty of a serious crime and are strangers, the other is a mob of people wanting justice and the penalty is death.
You have tremendous love for the guilty group and you want to spare them from that punishment.
Now choose someone that you love dearly, if you are a parent please think of your own child. You tell your child that because of your love for the strangers you want to spare them from the punishment that they richly deserve by law. You ask your child to take the punishment for them so that they can go free.
Your child says "allright father, because of my love for you and for these strangers".
Now he walks out to the mob willingly and as the bible says was done unto Jesus they torture him by whipping and beating. He is spit upon and mocked and nailed to a cross. Crucifixion is one of the most horrible devices known to man.
Even though your child could stop this with a word he doesn't because of his love for those strangers. He cries out in anguish and you must turn away. Finally death comes. The price has been paid.
Now you go to the guilty people and you tell them that to receive a pardon all that is required of them is to admit their guilt, to repent and say I am sorry for what I have done please forgive me and we accept the sacrifice that your innocent son made for us so that we can be spared from that punishment.
But instead they say, "No thanks, we'll do it our way. We don't need your way because we aren't all that bad. There must be some other solution."
Mark, could any of us show this kind of love?
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13
In His love,
John |
