Life in the kingdom of God is full of paradoxes. You get a return by giving, you truly live by dying to self, and you run the race of this earthly life with patience. How can I give away and yet still receive? How can I die and yet live? How can I run and not be hurried, anxious, or tired?
And the most mind-boggling of all:
on this day, called ‘Good Friday’, we remember the Friday that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross. How can anything associated with a crucifixion be called ‘good‘?
Where is the hope? Where is the good news?
There is absolutely no way we can earn salvation.
We are all dead in our sin.
Jesus died on that cross.
But wait, God in His word says we don’t have to earn salvation. It’s a gift from Him to us. When we accept the gift from Him, we have abundant, eternal life.
Jesus rose the third day - alive, and appeared to hundreds - forever testifying that He is God - having the power of life over death, offering the gift salvation to any and all that believe in Him.
We learn in the Bible about our sin problem. Me, you, and everyone has this problem. As we read further, we see that it’s not just a problem, it’s death. We’ve got to fix this problem, or we will never truly live. How? God tells us in His word that there is absolutely no way we can earn salvation or eternal life.
Then we read in the Bible what Jesus claimed: that He was the Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life - the only way to an eternal, abundant life that only comes from a right relationship with God through Him. Salvation is available for all and we don’t have to work for it? Yes! Salvation comes by only believing in Him - that what He says is true and that He is who He says He is.
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