Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in
the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me.
Looking at our Lord on the cross, what I see above everything else is the love that made Him do it all. “Love so amazing, so divine.” What does it mean? Let the apostle himself answer the question. This is how he puts it: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:6-10).
It comes
to this, my dear friends: He is dying there because of His love for you, His
love for me, His love for those who are sinners, those who are rebels, those
who are enemies. He died for people who hated Him. As He was dying there, Saul
of Tarsus was hating Him, but He was dying for Saul of Tarsus. As Paul (to give
his subsequent name) puts it later: “. . . the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). He did not wait until Paul was converted
before He loved him. He loved him even when Saul of Tarsus was blaspheming His
holy name, ridiculing His claim that He was the Son of God and the Lord of
Glory, ridiculing the idea that He came to teach us and to die for us and to
save us, pouring his blasphemous scorn upon Him. While Paul was doing that,
Christ was dying for Paul. And He was doing the same for you and for me.
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