I'm doing "small group prep" for our meeting tomorrow night, so I'm digging into some good stuff right now. Since we are quickly approaching Holy Week, the point of discussion this week will be The Cross.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." - Eph. 2:13

The message of The Cross is so powerful. It was a moment in time with eternal repercussions that defied rational thought, rendered sin powerless, and made it possible for everyone to come near to God. And the message of The Cross has so many facets.

John Piper digs into these facets in his book, "The Passion of Jesus Christ". In his devotional-style book, Piper writes 50 chapters that demonstrate 50 different reasons why "Jesus came to die".

Home group is only supposed to be 90 minutes, so I can't exactly go into all of these reasons, but I tried to come up with my "Top 5" reasons from the Top 50 reasons Jesus went to the cross:

1. To show the wealth of God's love and grace for sinners
2. To show His(Jesus') own love for us
3. To learn obedience and be perfected
4. To create a people passionate for God's works
5. So that we might belong to Him

For some reason, #3 really stood out to me. I had never thought of this one, but it's so true and so powerful to know that because Christ faced temptation, faced hunger, faced horrible pain and death, that he is truly our Savior that can identify with us.


I'd go into this more, but some of you will be there tomorrow evening. If not, dig into the Word and remind yourself how powerful the message of The Cross, and the act of obedience and love that Jesus carried out there.

Labels: Christian Life