Matt Redman has written a song called, ‘The Cross Has Said It All’, and the words have summed up for me so much of my personal gratitude for Jesus Christ and his cross.
The cross has said it all.
The cross has said it all
I can’t deny what you have shown.
The cross speaks of a God of love
there displayed for all to see.
Jesus Christ our only hope,
a message of the Father’s heart.
Come, my children, come home to me.
As high as the heavens are above the earth
So high is the measure of your great love.
As far as the East is from the West,
So far have you taken our sins from us.
The cross has said it all,
the cross has said it all.
I never recognized your touch
until I met you at the Cross.
We are fallen dust to dust.
How could you do this for us
Son of God? Shed precious blood,
who can comprehend this love?
How high, how wide, how deep?
The cross has said it all.
The cross has said it all.
Without the cross I stand before a Holy God unforgiven of my sin.
Jesus is our forgiveness model. He forgave perfectly. He forgave the way the Father forgives. After all Jesus is the Father come down from heaven to show us how to live our lives. The anguish and struggle Jesus went through that night at Gesthemane was the launching pad for forgiveness. He had not yet bought our forgiveness. He’d only agreed to pay the price for it. In order to complete our forgiveness, Jesus still had to endure the agony of the cross, and then he had to experience three days of death and separation from God.
Forgiveness is tough. It is a violent wrench of the body, soul, and spirit. Forgiveness is not a cheap piece of jewelry that we put on our wrists or around our neck as spiritual decoration. Forgiveness costs and it costs abundantly. It cost Jesus everything he had. 
Forgiveness is also very lonely. Jesus asked his friends for support. If we choose to live a life of forgiveness that’s the way it is when we’re struggling to be forgivers.
Forgiveness is a choice, a life style. Jesus was free to choose the process of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a life style that we too are invited to choose to live.
Forgiveness is intense love, dripping with freshly spilled blood. Forgiveness is a heart-breaking choice to love the sinner more than you hate the sin. This is what Jesus came to do.
Forgiveness is free. God offers it. But it’s not cheap. It cost Jesus his life!
1 comment:
What a great post, Brenda.
I was struck by what you said about forgiveness being lonely. In a culture where we are so focused on self, on rights, on demanding what we "deserve" (hah!), forgiveness can be an offense-- offensive to the point that the forgiver is rejected as unjust or insensitive.
It's so hard to live in the place where grace and justice intersect, but that's what we are called to do. Wow.
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