A few thoughts

Forgiveness – complete at the cross

We cannot talk of forgiveness without first talking of God’s love. We hear lots about sexual love, selfish love, indulgent love, and God is thought to be the author of it. People say “God is love”. BUT God is not the author of that kind of love. This love is fraught with sinful acts and attitudes. God’s love is a love that sees things as they are, moves to punish sin, which satisfies God’s wrath and so establishes love in righteousness. There is hardly a verse in the Bible that speaks of God’s love without speaking, sometimes in the same sentence, of the cross. John 3:16 “for God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ, never the less I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
1 John 4:10 “Herein, is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The cross is the measure of God’s love for you. As you look to the cross you begin to get a feeling for it. From 12`midday until 3pm when Christ died. Mark 15:33 - “there was darkness over the whole land”

John Stott says of these hours “with the darkness came silence for no eye could see, and no lips could tell, the agony of soul which the spotless Lamb of God endured. The accumulated sin of the whole world and accumulated history were laid upon Him. Voluntarily He shouldered full responsibility for them. And then in desolate spiritual abandonment that woeful cry was wrung from His lips Mark 15:34 “my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”. In that moment God the Father turned His back on His beloved son, and Christ tasted Hell for us. That is how much God loves us.”

Christian, look to the cross and marvel at the extent of God’s love. This is where forgiveness is completed. "If you are uncertain of salvation, look to the cross and find there all He has done to redeem you. If you are discouraged, look to the cross and find there the height and depth of His love. If you are apart from Christ and do not yet believe, you must look to the cross and find there one who has died to remove your sin and to still the demands of God’s justice against you forever." based on - "phillipians - a commentary by James Montgomery Boice