My child! In mercy I come to you and to anyone who will receive me. I come to seek, rescue, deliver . . . . I come to set free those imprisoned by their own selfish interests and by their soul's enemy. To set them free of their enmity against me . . .
Then had come the hour for my supreme sacrifice. In soul and body I gave myself to my foes to atone for their sin of anger against God.
So, a great mystery began to unfold . . . beginning with hours of anguish in the olive garden . . . the grim betrayal by my friend Judas. . . and the priests' midnight trial in a mock court . . . followed by the Romans' cruel whips, tearing thorns, and nails . . . the wooden cross against my broken body . . . my very life blood spilling out on the soil.
There I hung . . . mercy itself, extended to all men.
I could easily have saved myself. I chose to save you.
You see, my friend, genuine forgiveness extended to another costs a great price. The one who forgives literally lays down his or her life, in humble self-sacrifice, to bear the cost of reconciliation. It is a titanic transaction in which the merciful one takes on all the burden of the crime, the anger, the animosity-and sets his foe free. And that is what I did on that awful hill of Calvary. All men and women of all time were set free because I took upon myself all your iniquities.
Now you know why the peace made between you and me is so precious. Now you know why the reconciliation between sinner and Maker is sure.
All because, my child, I am mercy. And in grace I paid to wipe away your sins. No one else could pay that cost. Because I am God.
--from chapter 4
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