Back in seminary, one of my professors, David Eckman, shared a powerful illustration of God’s love with us. Over the years, I have referred to that illustration in messages, as well as rehearsed it in my own mind, as I have sought to communicate and better understand God’s love for his creation.

In the illustration, God enters onto the scene of our most shameful and embarrassing sin to tell us just how much we mean to him. In that moment, of our greatest guilt and shame, God lovingly points to the cross to demonstrate just how much we are worth to him. It’s a reminder to me, that when we were at our worst, God loved us the most.

It still boggles my mind to stop and think of the reality of the cross. To think that God was free to place the cross anywhere in time, since its benefits would be applied everywhere in time. The cross wasn’t placed in the Garden of Eden before the onset of our sin, nor in the future Kingdom when our sin would be obliterated, but in the middle of our sin, when we had the least to offer.

It is this understanding of who we are in Christ that also gives us the proper ammunition to handle the problem of sin within. You see, as I come to understand my identification with Christ, I don’t have to live in fear of God or hide from his presence, because I am fully known and fully loved. In identifying myself with the Son, I can rest in the forgiveness made possible at the cross, and come to God with full assurance knowing that I am no longer a slave to the moods and desires that hold me in bondage because of what God says is true of me.

I recently saw this video clip from the movie Blood Diamond and it served to remind me of this powerful illustration and the reality of God’s great love for us and our identity in him. As you watch, think of a similar conversation God might want to have with you.