Why?

Why?
 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” - John 14:6
                                                                                                       
Recently, a pastor named Alistair Begg retired after forty or so years as the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a heck of a preacher. There are video clips galore out there in cyberspace, but probably the best-known one—and one I recommend you watch if you haven’t seen it—is popularly known as “The Man on the Middle Cross.” In the brief clip, Begg sets up the scenario of the thief on the cross as he stands at the gates of heaven. He is asked by what right he is standing there. I won’t go into the details of Mr. Begg’s scenario; I could not do it justice. Suffice to say that in the end, the only answer the thief has is the same as your answer or mine; the only one that will do, in fact: “The man on the middle cross said I can come.” I have probably watched that clip twenty times or so now, and so far, I have cried every single time.
 
I am currently reading a book by R.C. Sproul, entitled “Reason to Believe.” Again, I highly recommend it. One of the questions Sproul addresses is, “Why is there only one way to heaven?” I won’t try to explain his reasoning here (read it for yourself), but his response is itself the great question. “Why is there any way at all?” It’s worth considering, isn’t it? God made a perfect world and put people on it. He gave them everything they could ever want or need. All he asked in return was one simple act of obedience. And the minute they got a chance, they disobeyed. Why didn’t God just stop it all right there? He could have, you know. He could have just thrown in the towel and started all over again. Or not. But instead, He made a way. The way of mercy, the way of grace.
 
And so it begs Sproul’s question: Why? There is no practical answer, no human reason why He should have done that. God is God. No one can make Him do something. There is only one answer that makes any kind of sense. He loves us. It’s as simple and as breathtakingly profound as that. God loves us in a way we cannot comprehend. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture, the works of His hands. He made us, fashioned us from the dirt of His earth. He breathed His Spirit into us and made us living souls. He formed us in the wombs of our mothers and gave us life. He just…loves us. It defies comprehension.
 
Because of His great love for us, He made the way of the cross by which we may come to Him and have joy and life eternal. And because of our great brokenness, that way is the only way. We can never earn it, never deserve it, never be good enough to claim it on our own. Our only hope is in His mercy. We can be saved, and we can belong to God forever, because and only because the Man on the middle cross said we can come.
 
Thanks be to God.