CHRISTIAN FINE ART GALLERY > BELIEVER’S ROAD SERIES 2 > At The Foot of The Cross — Forgiven
PURCHASE THIS PRINT – Print Code: BR13
Print Sizes: S, M, L, Oversize | Greeting Cards | Original Artwork: SOLD, Pen on Paper
God desires a loving, personal relationship with each one of us. Sadly, however, we are eternally separated from him because we have all sinned against him. God declares that the just punishment for our sins is death and hell. However, God still loves us and, therefore, made the way for us to be reconciled back to him. He sent his Son, Jesus, to pay the punishment for our sins through his death on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead three days later, making reconciliation possible. When you repent (confess and turn away) from your sins and place your faith in Christ, God will forgive you and will bring you into a loving, personal relationship with him that will last throughout eternity.
This person kneeling at the foot of the cross is doing just that. Jesus lovingly lays his hand on her head and forgives her.
Artist’s Reflection:
“There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement [as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin] through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:21-25)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)
It doesn’t matter who we are, every single one of us has sinned against God. We are all equal at the foot of the cross; we are all equally in need of mercy. Our sin prevents us from having a personal relationship with God, for God is perfectly holy and cannot be in the presence of sin.
However, God still loves us immensely and desires each one of us to enjoy a loving personal relationship with him. For that reason, God made the way for us to be reconciled to himself.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God sent his Son, Jesus, to live the perfect, sinless life we could not live. Jesus then took upon himself all of our sins and bore the punishment for them by dying on the cross. What amazing love!
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11)
To be reconciled to God and to come into a loving, personal relationship with him, you must repent (turn away) from your sins and ask God to forgive you. Secondly, you must trust in Jesus to be your personal Savior, believing that his death on the cross paid the full punishment for your sins. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
As soon as you place your faith in Jesus as Savior, all your sins–past, present and future–are accounted to him…and his perfect righteousness and right standing with God is freely given to you. It is a ransom, a trading of places, and it is appropriated by faith.
How beautiful is God’s love for us!
(See “Message” )
“[Jesus said] ‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.’” (John 12:32)
The wonderful message of this drawing is not condemnation but redemption.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18).
Salvation (being saved from our sins) is so simple because all we have to do is believe. Even a little child can do that! God also made salvation equally accessible to everyone, for we do not have to be holy, good or smart to appropriate it. All we have to do is come to God, just as we are, as sinners in need of mercy, and repent and believe in Jesus, and he will save us.
“Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)
See also:
Equal at The Foot of The Cross, Equally in Need of Mercy (Believer’s Road Series)
Empty Hands (Believer’s Road Series)
Unworthy, But That’s The Grace of God (Believer’s Road Series)