For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
“The most profound moment in the movement of divine generosity is the moment that takes us from death to life, from the cross to the resurrection…It is ultimately in the bright light of Easter morning that we finally get a clear look at what God’s generosity is all about…Yet, it is important for us to realize that even in this ultimate movement, Christ’s cross is not left behind.
Had the cross been merely a means to an end, a simple “tool” in the larger scheme of God’s purposes, early Christianity might have chosen a different image as the great sign and symbol of the faith. But as history has shown us, that was not the case.
The cross remains at the center of everything, even after the resurrection; and not only for understanding the salvation God has accomplished in the past, or only as the pattern for our own obedience, but also for our experience of God himself and his abundance in the present.”
Kelly Kapic in God So Loved, He Gave (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) 157.