“Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

             -Hebrews 2:17

Last night I lay in bed meditating on this passage of Scripture and, just as I was about to fall asleep, an amazing thought occurred to me: we serve a God Who is both mercifully faithful and faithfully merciful. It is because of His mercy that He loves us, and yet because of His love that we are shown mercy. Though none of us could ever deserve forgiveness, the price for our redemption has been fully paid by Jesus Christ, our High Priest, and all we must do is repent and believe the Gospel in order to obtain it (Luke 13:3; Romans 10:9).

Though critics of our faith often say they won’t believe in God until He comes down from heaven and appears to them physically, they fail to realize that, for 33 years, that’s exactly what He did. The Word was made flesh, we beheld His glory, and then crucified it (John 1:5, 14). It’s never been about us lacking good reason to believe, but rather that people often reject the evidence God has already given and then blame Him for their own doubts. Like the Jews who wanted a sign of Christ’s deity after they’d just watched Him miraculously feed 5,000 people (John 6:30), it’s foolish of us to look any further than the cross in our search for God’s love. 

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

           -Romans 5:8

Unlike the brand of love we see at work in today’s world, love in its purest form cannot be expressed in words; it can only be proven by our actions. This is the type of love that filled the heart of our Heavenly Father, moving Him to demonstrate His undying affection for us by dying a sinner’s death on a cross at the hands of those He created. Such a love could never begin to be understood if all we had was the verbal promise of its existence. Of course some would probably still believe in it, but could we ever truly comprehend it? Now that we have such clear evidence that it does indeed exist, we are finally able to“comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)