On Holy Ground
© 1999 by Charles Stanley

APRIL 23

Love Displayed

SCRIPTURE READING: John 8:1–11
KEY VERSE: Romans 8:34
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

In his book The Cross of Christ, John R. W. Stott explained how God’s love is consummately displayed in the death of His Son:

First, God gave His Son for us . . . In sending His own Son, eternally begotten from His own Being, He was not sending a creature, a third party, but giving Himself. The logic of this is inescapable. How could the Father’s love have been demonstrated if He had sent somebody else to us?

Secondly, God gave His Son to die for us . . . His was to give Himself to the uttermost, to the torture of crucifixion and to the horror of sin-bearing and God forsakenness . . . For the Sinless One to be made sin, for the Immortal One to die—we have no means of imagining the terror or the pain involved in such experiences.

Thirdly, God gave His Son to die for us, that is to say, for undeserving sinners like us . . . But God demonstrated His own righteousness for us—His unique love—in this, that He died for sinful, godless, rebellious, and helpless people like us (Romans 5:8).

Never doubt God’s love for you. The pierced hands and feet and speared side are His everlasting display of perfect love.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for giving Your Son to die for me. Give me a fresh glimpse of the pierced hands and feet, the speared side, that display Your everlasting love.