From the time humanity sinned and broke fellowship with God, God has been working to restore the relationship. Through the millennia, despite humans’ continual failure, God has remained true to the love he expressed for his creation, and Jesus’ sacrifice is the highest expression of this love and desire for restored relationship.

The reason that reading God’s Word causes us to fall in love with him is that we are wooed by the astounding commitment that would pursue us through the ages. This extraordinary act of love was surrounded by supernatural occurrences that revealed and proved this single event as the climax of all human history.

“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” (Matt. 27:45)

Jesus came as the light of the world. Darkness was used in Scripture as a descriptor of a national judgment rendered by God. We saw this in Exodus when he sent the plague of darkness on Egypt. Isaiah used this imagery in describing the judgment against Israel.

“In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the sun will be darkened by clouds.” (Is. 5:30)

The judgment represented in these three hours of darkness at Jesus’ death was the ultimate judgment on sin and of death. Here the power of Satan was broken and the transgressions that separate humans from God were conquered.

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Matt. 27:51a)