In the end, it really does come down to the fact that we’re all dying people, and we all need hope.
When the noise quiets, when the arguments fade, when every defence we’ve built falls away, when we find ourselves standing at that thin place between this life and the next, what matters most about the gospel is not only what happened, but why.
Yes, God the Son truly took on human flesh in the man Jesus. Yes, Jesus truly died for our sins and rose again as the firstborn of God’s new creation. This is the “what” – the concrete, world shaking history without which there could be no “why” at all. The gospel is not moving because it is meaningful, it is meaningful because it is true.
But there is a “why”.
The why is love. Love that would not leave us in our guilt. Love that would not let death have the final word. Love that stooped to share our dust, our tears, our rejection, our shame. And it is in this historical stooping that we have the clearest window into the eternal heart of God for the very least of the very lost.
The cross tells us that no one is too dirty, too broken, too late, too far gone for the reach of Gods love. If God took on humanity to descend to the depths, it was to lift even the lowest of us mortals into His everlasting life.
The gospel is not a theory to admire, nor a formula to master. It is, in a proper sense, a Person to trust: a Saviour who meets us at our worst and gives us Himself. And such grace is not trite lenience, it is Love paying the full price – Himself.
Jesus is the center of it all. And there is simply no need not explain every mystery when we have met the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus loves you. That is the “why”. And it is enough to live by and it is enough to die in peace. May every lesser voice fall silent, until only His remains.
