Love is in the air

BISHOP SONNY E. WILLIAMS – PRESIDING BISHOP

PENTECOSTAL ASSEMBLIES OF THE WEST INDIES –

As we celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection this weekend, let us focus on the demonstration of God’s love. Isaiah 49:16 says, “(God) loves you so much that He engraved your name on the palm of His hand”. Matthew 10:30 says, “He loves you so much that He knows how many hairs are on your head”. Psalms 56:8 says, “He loves you so much that He saves your tears in a bottle”. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “He loves you with an everlasting love”.

The cross, the centre of our celebration, is God’s statement of just how much He loves you.

When you think of the immensity of God’s love, the first thing the Bible often asks us to do is to consider the price that was paid. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10). The cross reveals God’s love. If you want to see how much God loves you, look at the cross.

The message of the cross is the greatest paradox. Christ came to the earth in order that we might go to heaven. He was born in the flesh that we might be born in the Spirit. Christ accepted poverty so that we might be made rich. He was rejected of men that we may be accepted of God. He was put to death so that we can be made alive. All the seeming disadvantages that He suffered are for our advantages.

It was by His death we have life, by His punishment we have freedom. By His sacrifice we are saved, by His blood we are made blameless. His affliction was for our atonement, His curse for our crime, His mortality for our immortality, His end for our eternity, His suffering for our salvation, His grace for our guilt and His pain for our pardon.

A young man wrote this to his girlfriend. “Sweetheart, if this world was as hot as the Sahara desert, I would crawl on my knees through the burning sand to come to you. If the world was like the Atlantic Ocean, I would swim through shark infested waters to come to you. I would fight the fiercest dragon to be by your side. I will see you on Thursday if it does not rain.”

God’s love has no condition. God loves those who reject his truth as much as those who accept it. Paul echoes this said truth, “But God commended his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

This Easter, as in every day, “Love is in the Air”. PAWI encourages all to accept God’s love.