the centrality of the cross

i have been reminded of the centrality of the gospel. reading in Luke of the passion of the Christ, listening to a few messages that hit on the gospel, and starting Death By Love by driscoll and bershears have been really making me think. during the break, I didn't really feel a love for God in my own heart. honestly, my desire and preference were to spend time with addie instead of pursuing God, and i often did instead of being with Christ. i prayed for God to make me love him, to put that desire within my heart for more of him, but nothing really seemed to happen. no new desire or want to even spend time with God. 

 yet, after reading God's word about Christ's work on the cross, i was filled with awe and wonder, and my heart was stirred within me. If there is no content to love, then it is meaningless. Matt Chandler gave the example of telling the girl you are dating, "baby, i love your beautiful blue eyes" - but she doesn't have blue eyes...the statement is meaningless. there is no basis for love. on the other hand, when love is grounded on a solid foundation, it is a beautiful thing. 

my love for God grows and gains better footing on the ground before the cross. 

my love expands as i grasp the act of Christ in which he showed me the full extent of his love. 

even as i have been going over the gospel more and more, meditating on it and reading about how Jesus was born to die, how he came and bore all of God's wrath and punishment that was supposed to be directed at my head, giving me the life that i do not deserve. he substituted himself to take what only i deserve. john stott puts it this way:

the concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. for the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone. 

 

as i think about the cross as the fullest demonstration of God's love for me, i can't help but be compelled towoard his father heart.

the cross of Christ is central to the love of God.