“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19)
Think about this scenario: you are a man with a wife and 3 children. Your house is broken into by a masked man armed with a shotgun. He gathers your family together in the living room at gunpoint. Then he asks you, as the father and head of your household to choose who is going to die. He says he will kill only one of you and then leave in peace (and he is telling the truth). Who would you choose? An honorable man would choose himself, and that is (in my opinion) the only honorable choice. An honorable man would sacrifice himself for his family – his wife and children. It would be the ultimate act of love, given the situation.
I have heard uninformed atheists judge God by saying that, if He exists, God is vicious and cruel. How could He send His Son to the cross? Why didn’t He man up and go to the cross Himself? Well, first of all, He’s not a man He is an almighty, all knowing Spirit, and second, these are very presumptuous statements from created beings attempting to judge their creator, but I’ve heard several statements like this. The thing they fail to realize or even understand is that God did go to the cross, in the only way possible. Jesus is God (God the Son). God loved us so much that before He even created the universe He knew He would have to sacrifice Himself as God the Son to redeem everyone. Many choose to reject him, but each person willing to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior receive a wondrous gift. Jesus is God, and the sacrifice had to be perfect, so God the Father created a human (Jesus) and implanted Him in a virgin’s womb. He was fully human and fully God. As the father in the story above, God the Father sacrificed Himself for all of us in the only way available, as God the Son. Everyone has the right and responsibility to accept the free gift of eternal life and an eternal relationship with God. Unfortunately, few accept the gift. Those that do accept the gift can know that God would do anything to protect us. Just like the good and honorable father from the story, He was even be willing to sacrifice Himself. He chose to die so that we could live and live eternally. What an amazing gift.
This Easter please take time to reflect on God’s sacrifice for His beloved bride (the church) and His precious children (redeemed believers). Reflect on the fact that Jesus rose again on the third day and sits at the right hand of God in Heaven awaiting our arrival.