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I'm sure you've heard it; might have even said it. "I love you to death!" An endearing phrase, I'm pretty sure. But can you take it literally? God did.

Think about it. Paul said, "We preach Christ crucified." (1 Corinthians 1:23) What a story! He even recognizes the problem. "To Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." And that's the Christ we preach--crucified. But it's huge.

I suspect we suffer from a little nearsightedness and often don't see just how vast God is and, in consequence, how vast our sin is. We stand guilty of Cosmic Treason ... and that's the best we get.

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

So we're stuck, on our own, with the mind set on the flesh and its ramifications. We're hostile to God, unwilling to subject ourselves to God, unable to please God. We aren't merely estranged; we're enemies. And then that glorious, "But God" (Ephesians 2:4-7).

Think about that. Here we are, treasonous creatures shaking our fists in the face of God, aiming to overthrow Him if we could. And Him? He's there planning the death of His Son on behalf of the enemy. That's right. Not friends, not those who love Him, not people desperately seeking to know Him. His sworn enemies. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us" sent His Son to die for us so that we who place our faith in Him could be made "alive together with Christ ... so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." If you are His, Christ literally loved you to death.

Of course, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless." (1 Corinthians 15:17) As Paul Harvey used to say, that's "the rest of the story." So this week we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior. Let's not lose sight of the marvel of it. I'm sorry, that's not sufficient. I don't have the words. That the Father would choose to send His only Son, that Christ would volunteer to come, that Jesus would die the most excruciating death and suffer His own Father's wrath, that He would lie in the grave for three days and then rise again for me, the chief among sinners, is too wonderful for me to express. Isaac Watts wrote, "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." I dare not forget it.

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

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