Years ago in college, I received a letter from the bank informing me I’d been writing bad checks out of a closed account. It listed all the stacking charges and fees against me.

I was panicked and in deep trouble because there was no possible way I could cover the cost of what I’d done.

It was the weekend, so I put the letter away and went home to my parents’ house, barely mentioning it to them. I had no plan, no way of paying the debt.

A week went by, and I received yet another letter from the bank…but all this letter contained was my account number and the words PAID IN FULL.

Impossible.

But God showed His own love for us in this way…

So I went to the bank, young and terrified, to tell them there had been a mistake. I was immediately escorted to the bank president himself. As I sat listening, the distinguished businessman explained a scene that had unfolded just days earlier, on Monday.

My mind jetted back to Monday—Where was I Monday? What was Monday?

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us…

~ Romans 5:8

He described a man who had come into his office, laid his own worn-out wallet on the president’s desk, and asked what it would take to reconcile my account.

Then he pulled out enough folded green cash to cover not only the bad checks I had written, but also all the penalty fees against me. And it was finished.

The man was my daddy.

It cost him dearly because he was a concrete finisher and a carpenter. Every penny my parents had was painstakingly carved out of rock-hard nothing.

My gratitude OVERWHELMED me. Why would he do that? Why didn’t he lecture me on how I deserved the penalties and how I should have to remedy my own mess?

For God loved the world so, so much…

Even though it doesn’t compare, years later the Most High God would bring this memory to my mind as I began to consider what Jesus did for me on Good Friday. The rush and memory of helplessness and thankfulness made the connection in my heart. But even so, I can’t comprehend any of it.

The song asks, Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

No, I wasn’t. I’ve never seen anything like that, nor can I fully grasp just how powerfully sinful I am to cause such a thing.

But I was there when I received the letter stamped paid in full. And I’ve been rescued time and time again by God’s love and His people who stepped in, in mercy, love, and power to show me God in ways I could understand.

I can’t describe Easter to you. No one really can. We can barely see.

But we can mirror God’s Love in ridiculous and lavish ways so lost souls can understand—in undeserved, overwhelming, costly ways that reflect Love Incarnate, risen and alive.

If we seem out of our minds, it’s for God…because Christ’s love controls us…

 ~ 2 Corinthians 5:14

Good Friday isn’t still happening. Mourn that it happened, savor the cost indeed…But the Savior will put people in your path today, in your conversations, that are chances for a skeptical, unhappy world to see His Risen Face in yours.

He died for everyone…

He died for everyone…

~ 2 Corinthians 5:15

He died for presidents, and world leaders…Crucify! Crucify! Can you still hear it?

He died for neighbors who betray us.

He died for pastors who fall, for husbands who don’t try, for protesters who are scared and angry… Crucify! Crucify! Can you hear it?

He died for women who prey on families, and for thieves.

He died for the mentally and physically sick, for teens who are anti-everything, for addicts who can’t stand the pain…

PAID IN FULL.

Don’t scream with the crowd.

Live for Jesus and be a healer.

…so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:15

Go find somebody who hasn’t believed the Good News, and love them like Sunday morning.

~

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So from now on, we judge no one by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in this way. This means anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

~ 2 Corinthians 5:16-17