If you want to see what judgment looks like, go to the cross. If you want to see what love looks like, go to the cross.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the dual nature of the cross, representing both judgment and profound love.
In this quote, D. A. Carson suggests that the cross serves as a powerful symbol reflecting two contrasting themes: judgment and love. The imagery of the cross evokes the harsh reality of judgment for sin, representing the weight of consequence, while simultaneously illustrating the ultimate expression of love through sacrifice. It invites reflection on the depths of compassion intertwined with the severity of justice, urging us to appreciate both aspects in the context of faith and redemption.
In practice
In a sermon about redemption, this quote could help illustrate the profound meaning of sacrifice.
Both God's love and God's wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the old covenant to the new, from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax - in the cross.
It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others.
Many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.
There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.
The kingdom of heaven is worth infinitely more than the cost of discipleship, and those who know where the treasure lies joyfully abandon everything else to secure it.
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.
What you will see is love coming out of the trees, love coming out of the sky, love coming out of the light. You will perceive love from everything around you. This is the state of bliss.
All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.
Set me free from evil passions, and heal my heart of all inordinate affections; that being inwardly cured and thoroughly cleansed, I may be made fit to love, courageous to suffer, steady to persevere.
Wouldst thou learn thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end. Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord's meaning.
There’s a ghost of a dream that you don’t even try to shake free off because you’re too in love with the way she haunts you.
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