“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…” John 3:36
Imagine a couple sitting in a car on a moonlit night at Niagara Falls. He puts his arm around her shoulder and whispers, “I love you.”
She looks up at him and says, “Do you? I sometimes wonder.”
“All right,” he says, “I’ll prove it. No sacrifice is too great for me.” So he gets out of the car, goes to the edge of the falls, throws himself over the edge and, as he falls down into the abyss, he screams out, “I love youuuuu…”
That would be an unforgettable experience for this girl, but it is not a demonstration of love. It is a demonstration of stupidity! Why? Because it accomplishes nothing whatsoever for the girl.
The only way in which the death of Jesus can be a demonstration of the love of God for us is if it achieves something for us. And this is what the death of Christ achieves: on the cross he deals with the greatest threat to human life.
Christian, the wrath of God burned itself out, as far as you are concerned, when Jesus bore it on the cross for you. Jesus Christ has dealt with the greatest threat, danger, or liability you will ever face. He did it at unfathomable cost to himself. And he did it in love for you.
When you are in Christ, you cannot possibly face the wrath of God, because he has absorbed it in himself on your behalf. One day you will stand in the presence of God, and when you do, you will have no reason to fear the wrath. Why? Because your savior absorbed the wrath in himself and now it can never, never, never touch you.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). So, why would you stand at a distance from him?
