To understand the Cross we must understand Sin

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26 ESV)

I think sometime I can too quickly focus on the cross without fully recognizing and understanding the reality if sin. He reality of sin is that myself and every other person has sinned and continues to sin against God. And God who also loves us also hates our acts of sin and our lives in sin.

This is the hardest part:
Sin leads to separation from God
And
We are all therefore already dead in sin now
And eternally:
We deserve eternal punishment and eternal death- separation from God.

Until we fully believe and accept this we cannot fully believe and appreciate the Cross. If we do not accept sin and recognize Gods authority to define sin then we reject the Cross. Event worse we minimize and lie about the cross. In my own heart my failure to believe this reality about sin is a sin in and of itself because of how it affects my understanding and teaching on Jesus on the Cross.

But if we truly understand sin we can fully and joyfully and thankfully from all of our being love and be in complete awe and appreciation of Jesus and the Cross. We can truly sing and say in our hearts: how marvelous and my serious is the Cross.

Lord though it is hard I pray you would reveal and convict us of the reality of sin in our own lives and the world and how sin means we are dead. I pray that would help us to truly understand the significance of what you did for us Jesus in humbling yourself to take on human flesh and die on a cross for us. Lord teach me what it means to be alive by knowing the difference between death in sin and life in the Spirit fighting day by day against sin with victory and hope in you God.
Amen