The Cross

I have been thinking about this for awhile and I keep coming back to the same conclusion. I don't think Christians should treat Jesus' death on the cross as a shocking or surprising event. I think we should be amazed at the love God showed for us in that act but not amazed that it transpired. I'm not saying this because of the many prophetic messages spoken concerning Jesus' death and resurrection in the centuries leading up to the first Good Friday. I am saying this because this is what a loving God does. Yes, God is just and holy and I suppose some would say that He would have been completely within His right to just let us be lost for eternity. God is sovereign and in that sense...yes...He could have allowed that.

However...God is love (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16). Should we really expect God to turn His back on those He created in His own image? After all, since God is omniscient, He knew before He even created us that we would fall away. He knew the consequences of giving us free will. So why would He create a people that He loved unconditionally only to see every single one of us lost for eternity with no hope of "life to the fullest"? Was the Father not going to rescue His children? Was the groom not going to come for His bride?

Even if not one resurrection prophecy had ever been uttered, we should have expected this to happen. Sure, we might not have expected it to transpire in exactly the manner it did but the fact that God came for us is perfectly in line with who God is and what God has done since the beginning of creation. Even today, I think most of us don't completely expect that God will come through for us. That is why we are reluctant to give over control of our lives 100%. But the cross stands as the most vivid reminder in the history of this world that God DOES come through...and we should continue to expect nothing less.