Palm Sunday - The Road To The Cross! Series

Does He just pretend that our sin is a regrettable lapse of concentration. Does He say, ‘boys will be boys and girls will be girls.’ Does God condone our stubbornness or turn a blind eye? NO! He couldn’t and still be holy. A holy God must hate sin.

A holy God cannot compromise his holiness by indulging our sinful or rebellious nature. He must hate sin – Yup, I used the “H” word, God hates sin. And He must punish sin. So, where does that leave us? Is God going to annihilate us? If God was going to punish sin, we wouldn’t have made it out of the garden of Eden.

Now, God might do this if He were just holy! But now we venture upon a 3rd biblical truth. Because, we cannot ignore God’s love. He has this undying devotion to His children. There’s something about you which stole His heart. Who knows what it is, He just chooses to love us. Not because we’re loveable, but because He is love.

And so we have these 2 strong, powerful emotions emerging out of the heavens. God’s holiness marching arm in arm with God’s love. Loving His stubborn kids. According to the Bible, He is the compassionate and gracious God ... yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:6-7). Holy and love in one.

In Him Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other (Psalm 85:10).

He is at once, a righteous God and a Savior. He is full of grace and truth. God is the just one, who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Do you see the holy love of God? Were God merely holy, we would have been destroyed. Were God merely love, the lack of discipline would destroy us. A holy God cannot disregard wanton rebellion and a loving God cannot disregard His children. But a God of holy love will do what no one can imagine.

He will become a human being and He will lead a sinless life and He will die a sinners death in our place. That is the story of the cross. Listen to the words of Matthew and John from the Story –

45 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.

46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.