When faced with this question, most people will immediately say that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, to pay the debt we couldn't pay, or to win us forgiveness. What springs to mind is sin, and rightly so. Yet the cross has been described as a diamond, which, as you look at it from various perspectives, you see its glory all the more.
On Sunday night, Edward Lobb was preaching in St Elizabeth's, from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. He highlighted something I had never noticed before in the text. Why is it that Jesus died, according to this passage?
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10).
Do you see the remarkable thing? It doesn't say 'live for him' - which is what we expect. No, it says 'we might live with him'. Jesus went to the cross so that we might live with him - he died desiring our company for eternity!
Of course, this is a both-and, not an either-or. To use the diamond analogy, both dying for our sins and dying so that we might live with him sit together - they're not mutually exclusive.
How wonderful, that the Lord of the universe died so that you and I might live with him. Will you live with him? Or will you turn your back on him?
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