This continues my series on God'love and his forgiveness. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it this way, but Jesus' death and resurrection are all about God's love for you: his intense passion for you.  They are about his desire to reconnect with you in a personal way.

How does it feel to know that you are the object of God’s love?  It's as if  we all have a target on our back and God is coming after us, but he’s not coming to get us or judge us but to embrace us … if we’ll let him.

God's love moves him to pay the price.

This is all made possible because God forgave us. But forgiveness comes at a price.  The Bible tells us that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. And so God stepped up and said, “I’ll pay that price.”

Have you ever been about to pay for a meal and someone said, “Let me get that?” That’s what God did.  He knew we couldn’t afford to pay for our sin. He knew that it wasn’t in our power to restore our relationship to God, and so he said, “Let me get that.” God's love motivates him to forgive us.

God’s Love Sent Jesus to Forgive Us

When Jesus entered Jerusalem the week of his death, he came for our forgiveness. When he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and sweat blood, he did it to obtain our forgiveness. When he was beaten until his back ripped open, it was for our forgiveness. When nails were driven through his hands and feet and he hung on a cross until he died, it was for our forgiveness. And when Jesus rose from the dead it proved that he succeeded in obtaining our forgiveness!

Jesus was obsessed with obtaining our forgiveness and he did it gladly. The Bible tells us,

For the joy set before him he endured the cross. Hebrews 12:2

We are God’s joy. We are what motivated him to endure the cross. Can you believe that? Isn’t that amazing? Being in a daily relationship with you and me is God’s joy and not being in a daily relationship with us is his sadness.

There’s Nothing Keeping You From God’s Love

Jesus took our sins and gave us the right to know God personally… to call him “friend”.  And now there’s nothing keeping us from God. There’s no bouncer at his door.  Jesus’ death made a way into God’s presence for everyone on the planet. The only thing keeping you from God now, is …you. It’s up to you if you want to enter into the relationship that Jesus made possible.

This post is adapted from my book, Starting Over. I hope you'll share this post with someone who might need to hear this today.

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