First, we must know who He is who cares for our souls, then observe the nature of this love, then ask who gains from His love, then in what way He gave Himself for us, and how this obtains for us new life and Heaven.

Sermon details

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Particularly I’d like to focus on these great words ‘the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’. Not so long ago we were looking at the first part of this very verse, but now just that last part: ‘the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Well today we focus our minds on the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Christ has moved steadily toward Jerusalem. One of his last great acts was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. He has explained to the disciples (though they haven’t taken it in) that he’s going to be crucified and die and rise again from the dead. If we understand the gospel records correctly he has said it no less than three times – possibly four times. He’s been through the same words, he has prepared them, he’s effectively announced to them his legacy – ‘my peace’ (that is, reconciliation) ‘I leave with you.’

Everything has been moving towards this moment, the moment when he will allow himself voluntarily to be arrested and then crucified, to be the scapegoat, the sacrificial offering, for the sin of all who would ever be forgiven and saved through the history of the world. He’s been in the Garden of Gethsemane where he had that terrible, terrible foretaste of all that awaited him on Calvary’s cross, when God the Father would put upon him all the sin of those who would ever be forgiven, and punish him with their eternal weight of punishment, so that he could bear away their punishment and purchase for them their free forgiveness and salvation.

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