It all began in the Garden of Eden.  Because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit when God had said, “In the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17 nkjv), they not only faced physical death, but spiritual death as well.  When Adam and Eve sinned, in principle, we all sinned (see Romans 5:12).  Sin is like an infectious disease that has spread throughout humanity. We were all born with it.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to sin?  We don’t need to be taught how to sin, but we must be taught how to do right.  We must teach a child manners, but we don’t need to teach a child how to sin.  It comes down to this: We are not sinners because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners.  No matter how moral or religious we are, we still sin.

This is where the cross comes in, because we were separated from a holy and perfect God by our sin. But God loved us so much that He became a man and walked among us and went to a cross and died in our place and paid the price for every sin that we have ever committed.

The Bible says that when Jesus died on that cross, He canceled the record that contained the charges against us.  At the cross, Jesus dealt a decisive blow against Satan and his demon powers.  At the cross, Jesus purchased the salvation of the world.  This message is so deep and profound that you could spend the rest of your life studying it and still not grasp its full significance.  Yet it is so simple that even a child can understand it.  Still, many people do not understand the significance of what took place on that Roman cross 2,000 years ago.  Jesus died so that we might live.

If ever you are tempted to doubt God’s love for you, then take a long look at the cross.  It wasn’t the spikes that held Jesus there.  It was His love for you.