WHOEVER

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.        – John 3:16

 

During Holy Week that just passed, perhaps you watched the production of The Passion of the Christ, or the older rendition of The Greatest Story Ever Told. The human soul experiences deep sorrow or a shudder over the pain Jesus endured during His crucifixion scenes. Truly, the cross, more than anything else, is the most powerful demonstration of God’s incredible love for all the world's people. Matthew Henry wrote, “Behold, and wonder, that the holy God should love such a wicked world with a love of goodwill when he could not look upon it with any complacency. This was a time of love indeed.” 

 

Jeremiah Johnson recently said, “In Jesus, we are blessed by God with an excruciating gift.” He pointed out that the word “excruciating” comes from the Latin crux, meaning “a cross.”

The apostle John, who was a witness to Jesus’ suffering and death, wrote, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us” (1 John 3:1). Through that excruciating death and the victorious resurrection, God has offered the whole world His invitation to be with Him eternally. The gift is available to all, but one must accept it, and answer the invitation of the Holy Giver.

As Henry says, “We must yield an unfeigned assent and consent to the record God hath given in His word concerning His Son… we must give up ourselves to be ruled, and taught, and saved by Him.”

 

The cross and the empty tomb are proof positive of God’s love for you. Jesus died so you might live.

George Bernard wrote in 1913, “In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see, for ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.”

If you are not already among the “whoever,” come to Christ and trust the sacrifice of love today.