Three Words

I had already made up my mind. This time was different. It felt different. Though I’d been scorned, betrayed, and belittled in life before, something welled up inside me, transforming my mind, my thoughts, my heart. Yes, there was still some doubt. Was I worthy? Did my life have meaning, value? Was who I was enough? I hoped, I prayed that I was.

Then, in a moment, all of those questions were answered. I wasn’t on a mountaintop, or on some spiritual journey through nature. Instead, it was in the darkness, surrounded by silence, though there were thousands of others there, that I felt an embrace so close, so warm; it didn’t just envelop my physical body, it consumed my soul, my entire existence. Suddenly, the answer to my questions didn’t seem so distant, so far-fetched. In that moment, everything was true, honest, holy. And then I heard it. Not in a loud shout, but a quiet whisper into my ear, into my mind, into my heart. It was the three words we all long to hear; arguably the most important words that can be spoken – yet far too often are the hardest to say. Nevertheless, I heard them: “I love you.”

The moment those words came into my being, the tears began to flow, the weight of life was lifted, and my spirit was made whole. Those three words, spoken in a moment of complete surrender, whispered by the Almighty God into me, his child, changed everything. Those three words changed my life, my eternity forever.

Family, it’s those three words that we celebrate this weekend; when our God, our Savior, our Messiah, the Almighty, the King, Jesus proclaimed his love for you and me in the most powerful way. He laid down his life for the forgiveness of our sins, and the restoration of an eternal relationship with God Himself.

Let’s pause and evaluate the depths of His love. You see, I believe that His love runs deeper than perhaps we imagine. The truth is, before God even created the universe, the earth, and everything on it (including you and me), He knew that one day He would have to die so that you may truly live. Thousands, millions of years ago, God saw into the future, He saw you and the question arose: “Will I die for you?” And, without hesitation, His answer was like a mighty roar that reverberated throughout Heaven “YES!” Before all of creation, both in timeline and in testimony, God declared that you were worthy of his unconditional, sacrificial love. The bible tells us this is true in Ephesians 1:3-5 (NLT); where it is written:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

God decided long ago that you were the most important thing in His entire existence. You matter. You have value. You are loved. In other words, before the foundations of the world were laid, God was already proclaiming to you, “I Love You!”

To prove how very powerful His love was, and is, God decided to demonstrate to the universe that the words I Love You would not just be a verbal commitment. Instead, His belief in you, His love for you, the immeasurable value God places in your life, would be sealed in blood – His blood. God chose to come down to this earth, away from His kingly powers and privileges, to live as one of us, fully human, that He might die to remove the curse of sin which was over our lives. And because of His death, the curse would be destroyed forever. In its place would come a blessing. Forgiveness. Grace. Mercy.

So it was that on that fateful Friday, nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was led to the hill called “The Skull” to face his execution on a cross, built for torture; a testament to the impossibly low value humans had at the hands of other humans. The nails were driven into his hands and feet, and he was raised up, a spectacle for all to see, to mock, to loathe. As Jesus hung dying on the cross, it was the most horrible, and spectacular, demonstration of those three words: I Love You. In perhaps the most famous verse from the Bible, the glory of this sacrifice was pronounced. John 3:16 (NLT) reads,

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

It was there on the cross that the love of God came into its fullness. It was made holy, perfect, complete. As Jesus hung broken and bleeding from the Roman edifice, He once again had to ask the question: “Are you worth it?” Are you worth the pain, the suffering, the hate, the vitriol, the impending stench of death? Are you worth the agony of the weight from your sins placed upon his shoulders as he hung on that cross? Are you worth being called a son or daughter of the Kingdom of Heaven?

As all of Heaven and earth watched, waiting for the answer, in his mind Jesus knew the truth. You are loved. And, yes, you are worth it. He would die for you. He would die for your sins. But, even more so, He would die so that you may live a new life, a Kingdom life, a loved life.

As the minutes turned to hours, the suffering only increased. His heartbeat grew slower and slower. He began to feel faint; he knew the end was near. Every impulse in the humanness of his body desired for the suffering to be over, so it began shutting down. His breathing became more and more labored as he took his last gasps of oxygen. His lungs would sustain him only a few moments longer. Death was near. And, as his mind began to fade, his thoughts turned to you. Through the pain, inwardly he smiled, because he knew what this meant. The story then gives us three more words which echoed throughout the universe. In John 19:28-30 (NLT), the disciple records that moment:

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. ³⁰ When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Those three words, “It is finished!” didn’t just mean the end of Jesus’s life. They were so much more profound than that. When he said, “It is finished!” he meant that the curse of sin was finished. It meant that our place in the Kingdom of God was secured. It meant that we were forgiven, once and for all time.

The apostle Paul captures this truth in Romans 5:6-8 when he states,

 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Those three words, “It is finished!” meant that God had now proved to the universe just how much he loves you. There is nothing, not your sin, not your past, not your present, nor your future which can keep us from a direct relationship with the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, our Father, the Almighty God.

Additionally, those three words tell us the story of our own wholeness. No longer should we seek to fill the void in our souls through chasing the things of this world that just temporarily seek to replace the irreplaceable. Instead, “It is finished!” means that we can be whole, filled, loved, complete in Christ. In him, we are found to be perfect and holy.

But, God wasn’t just concerned with the here and now. He wasn’t going to just wipe the slate clean so our consciences could be free from the shame and guilt of sin. That’s not enough for our God.

God’s vision for you is so much larger than what you see in the day-to-day. God’s vision for you is eternal. He’s looking forward to the future when you can be with him, not just spiritually, but physically. He’s looking forward to the future when the doors to Heaven swing open and He welcomes you home.

But, to do so means that God needed to speak three more words which would remove the barrier between life and death. You see, though Jesus died for our sins on the cross, the grave remained. Death was still a reality.

Nonetheless, nothing can stand against our God. Nothing in Heaven or Earth can defeat his plans. Nothing in all creation can keep God from bringing his children home.

So, what did God have in mind? He would defeat the grave once and for all.

Our archenemy, Satan, knew this plan too. He knew that God planned to remove the curse of death from the equation of our existence. He knew that God planned to raise Jesus up out of the grave, proving once and for all that he had command not just over life, but what comes after life. What went into the grave dead would come out alive. What went into the grave in silence, would come out with the mighty roar from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. This truth perplexed Satan. So, he hatched a plan to make sure that no one could access the tomb of Jesus. He would employ human and supernatural means to repel any who dared come for his former friend.

As Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross on that terrible and terrific Friday, he was carefully wrapped in burial cloths and laid in a tomb. A stone was rolled across the entrance, and a Roman garrison was placed to guard it. The stone was sealed in place with wax, rope, and with the imprint of the Roman governor, declaring that if anyone so much as touched the tomb, they would instantly be put to death. For an added layer of security, Satan also placed a garrison of his most mighty warrior angels. The tomb was now impenetrable by human or supernatural forces. Or so he thought.

The disciple Matthew captures what happened next in Matthew 28:1-6 (NLT), where we hear three more words which are now etched into eternity.

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

² Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. ³ His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. ⁴ The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

⁵ Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.

God sent one angel, a single being of light, endowed with the power of the Almighty, to lay waste to the Roman soldiers, to run off the supernatural warriors of the enemy, and to melt away the seal which hung over the grave of Christ. With the motion of his finger, the stone rolled open and the tomb was revealed. The glory of God invaded the darkness of the grave, forcing it to retreat, leaving the lifeless body of Jesus illuminated in splendor. Then something miraculous happened. In the silence of the tomb, there was suddenly the sound of a breath.

As the Marys approached the tomb, the mighty angel drew near. This time, not in power and might, but in love and gladness. You see, though he’d been given the privilege to open the grave, his mission was even bigger than that. He brought us three words from God the Father which altered all of eternity; “He Is Risen!” Jesus is alive!

Those three words, “He is Risen!” carry so much meaning. Death is defeated. The grave no longer has a hold on you. Though you may die as a human, you no longer have to fear that it is the end. Because of the forgiveness of Jesus, and his glorious resurrection, you’ve been granted eternal life! Your old life is gone, and a new life within the Kingdom of God is now a reality – for all eternity.

So, what does this reality look like? Jesus tells us in Revelation 21:3-4 (NLT):

³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Today, and always, let these words wash over you. May you understand, experience, proclaim, and accept the goodness of Jesus in your life.