Sermon Short for March 18th, 2018 – God So Loved!
John 3: 14-21, Ephesians 2:1-10
As we travel this Lenten journey, our tradition is to be concerned with our faults, our sins, our failure to be perfect Christians. It’s as if we need this time to look toward the cross of Good Friday and be reminded again and again that we set up that cross, that we hammered in those nails. I wonder if we need to be reminded of this anymore during a Lenten Season than we need Advent to be reminded of peace and good will toward our neighbours.
Do we do this season to score a few penitential points? Do we give up something for Lent so that we’ll have earned Easter? If so, we are condemning ourselves. The cross is not meant as a pointer to our sin and depravity. The world does that well enough for us. No. The cross is a pointer to the work of God who sidetracks human sin into redemption, forgiveness. The same surprising tool of God condemns and saves.
Look at the cross not to see what we did to Jesus. John 3:16 says look at the cross and see what God does for us!
God’s love – it’s a gift of grace, not earned by our works, so no one can boast (Eph. 2:8, 9).