FBC Meridianville
My family visited Arlington National Cemetery this past Memorial Day weekend. We toured the 200 acres in which more than 300,000 of our nation’s military veterans are buried. As we stood on those grounds and looked over the rows of graves (each grave arrayed with an American flag for Memorial Day), I was overwhelmed with gratitude that someone would love me enough to die for me and for those whom I love.
As I thought of each of those individual crosses, my thoughts went back some 2,000 years to Someone who died for me, for you and for all mankind. When referring to that death, the apostle Paul said, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Jesus Christ died so that you, so that I, so that the apostle Paul and so that the entire world might experience the forgiveness of God and have a relationship with Him.
What must you and I do to receive the forgiveness that God offers us through the death and resurrection of His Son? We must admit that we are sinners (Rom. 3:23). We must recognize that Jesus Christ is God’s path to salvation and that without Jesus we have no hope (Rom. 6:23). We must turn from our sin by turning to God with a contrite heart, while confessing our faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9–13).
When people come to God, they often pray a prayer along the lines of: “Lord, I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. I know that your Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sin, and on the basis of His sacrifice, I ask you to forgive me of my sin and make me your child. Thank you, God, for loving me, and thank you, God, for saving me. Amen.”
I once read about an Atlanta bus driver who came upon a huge cross displayed at Easter alongside Peachtree Boulevard in Atlanta. Mistaking it for a memorial to an accident victim, the driver reportedly slowed his bus to a crawl and simply said in a low, awed voice: “My oh my, my oh my, somebody big must have died.” Never forget Somebody big did die for you — Jesus Christ, God’s Son — and that He desires to have a relationship with you.
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