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Steps to Jesus
makes between God and man. It forced from His lips the cry of pain,
“My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”
Matthew 27:46
. It
was the weight of sin, its terrible power to separate a sinner from
God, that broke His heart.
But the Son of God did not give His life to make His Father love
us. He did not die to make God willing to save. No, no! “God loved
the world so much that he gave his only Son.”
John 3:16
.
The Father loves us not because Christ died for us; He gave His
Son to die because He loved us. Through Christ God poured out
His infinite love upon a sinful world. “God was making all human
beings his friends through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:19
. God suffered
with His Son. In the pain of Gethsemane and the death on the cross,
God paid the price to save us.
Jesus said, “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up
my life, in order that I may receive it back again.”
John 10:17
. That
is, “My Father has loved you so much that He loves Me even more
for giving My life to redeem you. I died in your place, taking your
sins. Because I did this, I am closer to My Father than before, for
now God can be just and still save sinners who believe in Me.”
[9]
Only the Son of God could save us. Only He who was one
with God the Father could tell us about Him. Only He who knew
how high and how deep God’s love was could show it. Nothing
but Christ’s great sacrifice for us could make known how much the
Father loves sinners.
“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.”
John
3:16
. He gave Christ to live among men, to take their liabilities and
their sins, and to die for them. God gave His Son to this world. By
becoming a man, Christ would know how human beings felt and
what they needed. He was one with God, but He will always be
joined to the human race. “Jesus is not ashamed to call them his
family.”
Hebrews 2:11
.
Jesus is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, standing in
human form before His Father’s throne. In His human form He will
forever be one with the race He has saved. He is the Son of man.
And He did all this to lift us from the ruin of sin, so that we might
reflect the love of God and share the joy of godly living.
In giving His Son to die for us, our heavenly Father made a great
sacrifice and paid a high price to redeem us. Such a great price