The cross is a sign of love and forgiveness.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, not of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

Jesus is the manifestation of God’s great love for us. When Jesus walked the earth he told people about God’s love and how we must love God. The first and most important commandment is: love God. So, who is God?
God is the Creator. He has made mankind. He is the supreme parent of humanity. As a parent, God is extremely caring about his creation. He knows us better than we do. We are like children to this God and he takes us very serious. He loves us deeply, more than a human mother loves her child!
God is love. God in his love is a caring God who does what helps us most: he establishes justice and forgiveness for us. This is carried out by the cross of Jesus, by his death on the hill of Calvary. He dies the death of someone who has done unimaginable evil. He dies the death of a murderer, of someone who has plagued other people, who is severely guilty. It was Gods choice to do this type of sign. In his death Jesus summarizes and focuses all punishment, all justice, and all hatred of the world.
But the cross is more. It is the sign of forgiveness. Jesus dies there, such that everyone who believes in him shall be free of guilt. That is what God’s love does for every one of us. We can be fully free in the presence of a holy and just God. We do not need to fear old guilt. We do not need to fear the waste of our life. We do not need to fear all the bad things we did, nor all the things we failed to do. We can approach God without any fear, without any barrier, without any obstacle: in Jesus!
Jesus is the absolute condensate of God’s love. As God he came to live among humans. He left behind all his powers. He wanted to be with the people. It is a really powerful story. God was living in the middle of humans, just because of love. He lived there for thirty years! Then he started to talk to them and tried to get into contact as the one he really was: the son of God, the living creator in the middle of them. We might not believe such strange things if we did not have the words of Jesus passed on by his disciples and the evangelists. These words, his actions and behavior tell us who he really is. Here we see God’s love coming to us to bring us back to him today! How can we not be awed? How can we not be grateful? How can we not recognize this great love?
 
Peace and love,

Sue

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 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 4:9-10)