The Father's Sacrifice

We often focus on Christ's sacrifice, how He willingly allowed Himself to be sacrificed, how He chose to submit to the Father's plan (And this of course is very true, had He not followed through would have meant that He disobeyed God, which therefore would make Him imperfect). Yet somehow we have forgotten about the Father's sacrifice, myself included. He chose to make us. He chose to give us the ability to choose. He chose to send Jesus to earth. God the Father sacrificed for us. He sacrificed His only Son for our redemption! What a price to pay!

We love to quote John 3:16, it is probably the most well known verse on the planet. We love hearing, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And rightly so, it is good to remember that God loves us. I just have come to realize that quite often we shift the focus to the fact that we are loved, and have lost sight of the thing that blows this verse into a whole new level of importance. He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.

We are children of God, but we are adoptive children. We only become children of God when we submit our lives and put our trust and faith in Jesus as Lord. But Jesus was God's Son! Can you imagine giving your only child up to die? I can't. And yet it goes deeper than that. Can you imagine killing your own child to pay the ransom for a bunch of people who daily spit on you and call into question your very character? Yet this is precisely what God did for us.

While we were yet sinners Christ came and died at - not the Roman's or even the Jew's hand (after all, we have no power except what God allots us) - the Father's own hand! God killed His Son, He poured out the wrath we have deserved for our sins upon the only perfect Man to walk the earth! And this wasn't just any man, this was His Son. He killed His Son for me! And the worst part is that sometimes my heart can become so calloused to that. I don't know how I can read that verse and not weep. But I do it. I look at it and say, "See? God loves me!" But my understanding of that love is so shallow when I don't stop and realize God sacrificed His own Son for me. He sacrificed someone He loved deeply to be able to call a sinner like me His own. My God, I can't imagine.