"And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: Your shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'" (Matt. 22:35-40)

I have often chided myself for not obeying this command. I wrestle daily with failing to love my God and my neighbors. It is such a simple command, isn't it? Everything boiled down into two simple commands: Love God, Love others.

With Good Friday approaching this week and the shadow of the cross becoming ever more apparent, we must remember that Christ is the only One who ever truly fulfilled these commandments. His glorious work on the cross was the pinnacle of this fulfillment, displaying His obedient love for His Father and His sacrificial love for us.

Because we are in Christ, we now have the capability to fulfill these commands (2 Peter 1:3-4). We have divine power through Christ to love as He loved. But also, when we fail... because we are in Christ, the grace of God covers us. "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). When the Father looks at us, even amidst our failures, He sees His perfect Son. He sees the righteousness of Christ. He sees the One who perfectly loves Him and loves the world.

Praise and thank Him today for the cross!