My Sin and the Cross

Did my sin put Jesus on the cross? 

It didn’t force Him.  

It wasn’t His cross to bear. 

It was mine.  

I didn’t even ask him to go up there.  

He didn’t have to.  

He could have let me face my consequences.  

He could have let me get what I deserve. 

My sin didn’t put Him on the cross.  

It didn’t require him to be there.  

It wasn’t in the law that He should pay my debt.  

My sin didn’t put Him there. 

No, the love of God put Him there.  

His desire for my heart put Him there.  

His passion for my presence with Him put Him there.  

His pleasure in expressing His perfect love through great sacrifice put Him there.  

He knew this from before time.  

He planned this.  

He knew I wouldn’t be perfect. 

He designed me not to be. 

It is my very imperfection in quality and form that makes me perfect in function—a vessel designed to receive and need the full, perfect love for fulfillment and life.  

My sin, an expression of my imperfection, provides the only perfect conditions under which perfect love can be fully expressed—to love that which seems unlovable.  

As Jesus said, “Only a perfect love can love your enemies.  Only a perfect love can love someone that cannot reciprocate the same quality of love.  Only a perfect love can lay down its life for the very one that rejected it.”

My sin didn’t put Him up there.   

I needed Him up there. 

He knew it.  

His perfect love put Him there.   

The same love He has for you.

Now, how will we live?