Jesus paid a price we could not pay.
There is nothing you or I could have done to gain our citizenship in Heaven. Our citizenship in Heaven was bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. It took Jesus' shed blood to buy our redemption.
The Cross of Calvary is real. It is not a myth or a fairy tale. Jesus shed His blood for our redemption when He hung upon that Cross so many years ago. And now the Cross is both a warning to those who refuse to believe and a blessing to those who recognize that it stands for the grace of God.
We do not merit God's favor and grace. All of God's blessings were bought and paid for when Jesus became our substitute upon the Cross of Calvary. God's grace and mercy are now ours to freely receive.
If it were not for the Cross and Jesus' shed blood, we would have received justice. We would have had to pay the price for our own sins—something we could never do. But instead of receiving justice, we have received abundant mercy and grace because Jesus paid the price for us!
In our judicial system, sometimes the judge has the ability to be lenient and show mercy, or if need be, he can penalize an offender to the full limits of the law. Many times offenders will throw themselves on the mercy of the court, hoping to receive mercy instead of judgment.
I thank God that the Judge of all the earth, God Almighty, has given unlimited mercy to those who come to the Cross—the symbol of Jesus' redemption to all of mankind.
The Judge of all the earth has already extended mercy to you. Because of Jesus, all you have to do is accept His mercy. When you know Jesus and you are born again, you can stand before God fresh and clean because of the Cross of Calvary.
You see, because of Jesus' death on the Cross, we have passed from death to life (1 John 3:14). And every Christian has the hope that when he leaves this life, he goes to be with Jesus in Heaven and to begin his life there.
Because Jesus chose to become the Supreme Sacrifice for our sins and to die and shed His blood, you and I have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). This is the greatest story ever told to mankind. Someone—God's own Son—has taken our place and paid our debt of sin. And now we are free!
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications