"Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13 NIV
Jesus taught his disciples that the greatest love gives up everything for the object of that love. He said those words just hours before he was crucified. And his crucifixion was the sacrifice necessary to satisfy God's righteous demands for punishment of sin. All sin. My sin. Your sin.
Sin's a big deal. No matter how small because any sin is enough to break the relationship God wants to have with you. It happened in the Garden of Eden. It happened to King David. It happened to Peter. It happens to us. Nobody is exempt.
That's a big problem because to be separated from God leaves you no place to be for eternity but in hell.
Many people try to overcome the negatives of sin by the positives of good works. They must think that God keeps a ledger with sins on one side and works on the other. "Do my good works offset and outweigh my sins?" they must ask. And the answer is "No!" With all that the Bible says about good works, it never says that we are saved from sin by our good works. We are saved from our sin so that we may do good works. There's a big difference in those two statements.
The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. It's not good works that atones for your sins but blood. To be specific, the blood of Jesus atones for your sins.
And he must have had the greatest degree of love for you - for us - in order to lay down his life. That's just what he did to demonstrate his love for us while we were still sinners.
Take comfort in the love Jesus has for you. You should be grieved by the sin you commit but relieved by the grace given you. Pray that God will help you realize the depth of his love and the breadth of his grace.
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