About This Product
We’ve all seen them, those little dates printed on the milk jug cap or in small print on the package of bread. That fresh milk taste or the delicious flavor of good bread has a time limit. Enjoy it before that little date or run the risk of sour milk and dry bread. All great foods go bad at some point. Imagine trying to munch on food pulled from an Egyptian tomb. Disgusting! We don’t have forever to get the good out of some good things before they spoil.
You’ll hear some people say, “Let bygones be bygones.” When they mean don’t treasure bitterness, that may be good advice. However, justice doesn’t allow some crimes to have an “expiration date” or a statute of limitations. Time can’t heal the deadly wound of murder. No state in the U.S. has a statute of limitations for first-degree murder.
No Expiration Date for Justice
It shouldn’t surprise us that God’s standards are far higher than those of the criminal justice system. God has said, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). Which of us hasn’t gotten angry at someone close to us? We might have a long list of “justifications” like their repeated thoughtlessness or cruelty. But that is their sin. Our heart-response of hatred doesn’t escape the notice of God, who detects and remembers the “thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). God views the plan of the heart as evidence of the same wicked work as the physical act itself. One wicked thought twenty years ago (and who can deny having done far more than that), leaves us guilty in the presence of a holy God. There is no expiration date for the judgment of sin. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
No Expiration Date for Love
We can be so glad that God’s love has no expiration date. He has said about the ones He loves, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). He expressed that love when the Lord Jesus Christ came to Calvary’s cross to die for people like you and me who have murderous hearts. “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Thankfully that love can never lose its freshness and go sour or dry like milk or bread.
Christ’s death wasn’t merely a nice gesture; it had a purpose and a massive price tag. “He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). The death penalty from a holy God for my sin was executed on Jesus Christ. I’ve been washed clean of the guilt of my sin by the “blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son” (1 John 1:7). God’s justice didn’t expire or get waived. It was satisfied when Christ was punished for my sins. You too can enjoy the love of God that never ends.
What Will You Choose?
God’s love will never end, but His offer of it can be refused. Will you refuse to repent and suffer the penalty for sin — “everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8) — or will you enjoy God’s everlasting love? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).