7 Powerful Things the Cross Reveals about God’s Character
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As you search through the Scriptures, God’s character gets revealed. Each page teaches you more about who God is, especially as you see his engagement with humanity. But there is one place and one incident that reveals God’s character perhaps more than any other incident in the entire Bible. That place is the cross.
This is why the cross points to God’s mercy. God does not give us what we truly deserve, but pours it out on Jesus. The sins that Jesus died for were not his own sins, they were yours and mine. Rightfully, we were the ones who should have been crucified. We should have been punished because they were our sins, but God punished Christ instead. This is a demonstration of God’s mercy towards you. Because of the cross, instead of receiving punishment that we so rightly deserve, we find mercy.
In the cross we see God as judge. The Bible simply declares the wages of sin is death. Whenever there is sin, death will be the result. The reason why the cross reveals God's judgment is because he does not leave sin unpunished. He never has and never will.
The question you must ask is who will bear the punishment for your sin? God has already judged sin on the cross, by placing it all on Christ. However, if you don't put your faith in Christ, then God's judgment for sin will be placed all on you. Because he upholds the law, he must judge sin. However, if you are in Christ, your sins have already been accounted for. If you're not in Christ, then you will have to account for your own sins. The cross shows us God as a righteous judge.
If there is one thing that is clear, it’s that the cross reveals God's grace. The truth of the matter is none of us deserve salvation. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 2 it is by grace you have been saved not of works. And so in the cross, we discover God's grace, providing a salvation for us that none of us are entitled to. It is a salvation we couldn't earn and one we certainly don't deserve. But that’s what makes the cross so wonderful and why it paints such a beautiful picture of the grace of God. God’s great gift of salvation was paid for on the cross and given to underserving people like you and me.
Finally, the one I want to leave you with is that the cross is ultimately a picture of God's love for you. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. The amazing thing about God's love and the amazing thing about the cross is when Jesus chose to die for you. He didn't wait until you got your act together or cleaned yourself up to choose to die for you. Instead, when you were far from God, and at your absolute worst, that’s when Jesus died for you. There is no greater demonstration of God's love then the cross of Jesus Christ.
As you go through life, there may be times you want to question if God loves you, especially in the difficult and challenging parts of life. If you ever have a doubt or wonder about God’s love, all you must do is look at the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ will forever stand as an eternal reminder of just how much God truly loves you. For all eternity Jesus will bear in his body the marks of his love for you. The nail scarred hands and feet. When you comprehend that, you will see that ultimately the cross is God’s love for you on full display.
What more can you say about the cross? I think you can say plenty. I shared with you seven things, but there are more things you can discover about God from the cross. For this reason, I encourage you to look at the cross in a new light. Focus on the event and what happened at the cross, but don’t forget to see all of who God is from this wonderful place.
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Photo credit: Unsplash/Alicia Quan
