Love, that Hath No Bounds

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

It is staggering to consider that the God who created all things by the word of His power did not remain distant from the world He made. The One who set the stars in their courses, commanded the sun to stand still, fixed the boundaries of the mighty oceans, and holds the winds in His hand, chose to enter a world corrupted by sin and death in order to save His people.

This is the Lord who revealed His holiness to Isaiah—high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. This is the God who descended upon Mount Sinai in fire and thunder, who delivered His people by the blast of His nostrils as the waters of the sea stood upright and then collapsed upon their enemies. In that great deliverance, the God of infinite glory made Himself known to mortal men—and then did something greater still.

He placed Himself in the womb of a young girl. The Creator was carried by His creation. The eternal Son took on flesh, was born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and laid in a manger. He did not come in royal splendor, but in humility, so that all might approach Him. Had He been born in a palace, only the great could draw near. But because He came low, the poor, the broken, and the despised were welcomed.

Yet Jesus did not come merely to teach or heal. He came knowing the death He would suffer. He walked toward the cross with full knowledge that He would bear the penalty of sin. The King of glory was mocked by His own people, beaten, scourged, and condemned. His body was torn asunder. Nails were driven through His hands and His feet. A crown of thorns was pressed into His brow. Stripped and bleeding, He was lifted up between heaven and earth for all to see.

As He hung upon the cross, bearing the judgment owed to sinners, Jesus prayed for the executioners in the angry mob who hated him. Then, under the full weight of God’s righteous wrath, He was abandoned and willingly yielded up His spirit. This was no accident and no loss of control. It was the determined will of God that His Son be crushed, so that guilty sinners might live. His limp body was taken down and placed in a tomb, and a great stone was rolled across the entrance, sealing Him in death.

But the grave could not hold Him. On the third day, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, defeating death itself. He now reigns at the right hand of God, alive forevermore, holding the keys of death and hell. The cross was not the end—it was the victory. Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth concerning this, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

This reveals the heart of the gospel: Christ is freely offered to all who will come. No one is shut out. No life is too ruined, no soul too defiled. If a person desires Christ, that desire is not turned away at the door. He receives sinners gladly. He breaks the hardest hearts and makes them new.

Come, you who are religious and trusting in your own merit. Come, you who have harbored hatred and committed murder in your heart. Come, you who have broken God’s covenant design for marriage. Come, you who have lied, cheated, and stolen. Come, you who are self-righteous and believe you have done no wrong. Come—all of you with me—and gaze upon the Crucified One. See the crimson blood flowing from His body as He pays these debts. His strength fails, His breath grows shallow, and His lungs fill as He suffocates beneath the weight of the cross and the judgment He bears.

If you have never known the love of Jesus Christ, His mercy is extended to you even now. Look to Jesus and live. Hide yourself in His wounds and find rest for your soul. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord and trusts in the meritorious work of Christ on the cross will be saved. The God of the universe did not remain distant. He came. He suffered. He died. He rose. And He still saves.