I want, I need, to meditate on the sacrifice Christ made for me and all of us.

Our salvation is purchased at an infinite sacrifice for us. Not only did Jesus shed His blood at Calvary in dying for our sins, but He eternally took our human nature into His own divine nature. Forever, in the endless ages to come, Jesus Christ will be our brother. Unlike any other, Christ alone has such a nature; He is fully human and fully divine, the Son of God and the Son of man in one person. Through Him the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united to us in a bond that can never be broken.

We have to ask: What is sin that required such a sacrifice, such an act of descending humility? And what love! What love is required to make an eternal sacrifice for such sinful beings?

Knowing all things, foreseeing the rejection, humiliation, suffering, and cruel death that awaited Him, the Son of God took our flesh to be “God with us", that he might secure for us a salvation we are too dull to comprehend with any measure compared to what He offered.

How can it be? How can we think so little on what has been so great?

If we would spend “a thoughtful hour each day" (White) contemplating the life of Jesus, “especially the closing scenes", what a difference it would make in our spiritual experience. Those who have never been born from above, born again in spirit rather than mere flesh, would find the creative and redeeming power still streaming from the foot of the cross. Time spent with Jesus is time saved for eternity. Nothing is lost in contemplating the one who died for the lost. Rather, time is renewed, expanded, filled with the love only He can created. The hurried, rushing soul finds rest in every pause taken to worship the unhurried Christ.

And those disciples whose faith is waining will find a new inspiration, new courage, a deeper repentance, and receive a bolder witness to the Name that is above every other name.

Why do we not set our minds eye on the cross more often? Is there such an attraction of sin that we have no time for Jesus, no time to meditate on His suffering in place of our small pains and pitfalls? Would we not, through seeing what God has done for us, accept His abiding in us, to be moved away from so much love of self and toward a deeper, richer love for Him?

Acting as if the world will go on forever, too often we waste the most precious moments given us to spend them on trivial, mind-numbing banalities. Surely angels weep over our disrespect and disregard for a sacrifice, without which, will would never see the kingdom of God.

While there is some time, a small portion of the day left, why not spend it in repentance, confession, and the sure renewal of faith that comes from gazing on the Son of man bleeding for our sins?

Ask why. Ask why He did it—the cross— why it matters, what it means, what it does, how it heals, and how it grows in glory with every bend of the mind toward Him.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good". He is good and He is God. He is God come in the flesh, being tempted “in all points as we are, yet without sin". His fasting in the wilderness was for us. His long nights alone in prayer were for us. He took our sins upon upon Himself, a “Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief"; “with His stripes we are healed". Every contact with sinners caused Him pain, yet He drew near sinful beings as a compassionate friend, a tender companion with us in our degraded state of godlessness. Binding up the wounds of the robbed and rejected, Jesus sought us when we were strangers. “God walked the dark hills for you and me".

Today, while it is still called the day, before the night comes when no one can work, let us pursue Christ in the spirit He pursues us. Move toward Him in body, mind, and spirit, giving all our attention to Him who gave all His life for us. Learn to spend and be spent for the things of heaven rather than the things of earth; live from above and not from below, drinking freely from the river of life that flows from the throne of God. As “children of promise" and “prisoners of hope", live as sons and daughters of God “in Christ", receiving the richness of heavenly treasure, the forgiveness of our sins, and offering in return a heart broken in benevolence to God in worship. “Walk in the light as He is in the light" and you will never lose your way.

We have just now an intercessor, Christ our Lord, standing at the right hand of God in the heavenly temple (Rev. 5). As He did yesterday He does today, pleading His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness". With tears stronger than our sin the Son of God pleads our case in the judgment hall. The books are opened now (Rev. 14.6). Names are reviewed (Mal. 3.16). Preparation for His coming is being made. Who will be saved and who will be lost is being decided as each life is reviewed. When Jesus comes again, soon, He will not come to die again for sin, but to make sin’s death complete in destroying all that offends against the glory of God. Who will stand then (Rev. 6.17)? Who can stand now? Only those robed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

Freely offered, “without money, without price", yet at great cost to Himself, our Advocate in heaven holds out to all a robe whiter than snow. Washed in His blood, our guilt and condemnation melt away. We may be complete in Him, just and justified, separated unto God through His Son.

Why wait longer? Why spend one more minute doubting the free salvation given us in the blood of the Lamb?

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Revelation 3.20-22