The Ultimate Act Of Love


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.

-John 3:16

An agnostic or an atheist might cite this verse in the Bible to try to discredit Christianity. They might say, "I can't believe in a God who would send His only Son to suffer such a cruel death; death by crucifixion. Where is the love in that?"

There is more love in that act than anyone could possibly imagine! Humankind has strayed so far from God's original intention when God said that "it was good" at the beginning of creation turning to sin and idol worship again and again and again. God had given man every chance and opportunity to turn back to Him who is our Almighty Creator and each time man has failed Him. God went so far as to wipe out all his creation save for the righteous Noah and his family. Noah became the new Adam. Yet, like Adam, Noah failed. Mankind had once more succumbed to sin.

But God did not give up on us. He guided us like a father and disciplined us when it was needed. To those disciplined at the time it might have seemed harsh, but they recognized God's love eventually.

Then came Abraham. The beginning of salvation history. God had a plan. But he needed to test Abraham to see if he was strong enough to be loyal to God at any cost. As a test of his loyalty, Abraham was to "take [his] son, [his] only son Isaac" and offer him as a sacrifice to God (Gen 22:2). Abraham obeyed. He took his son to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him to God.

The important thing to remember here is that God made man to have free will. That means the ability to accept God or reject Him. An atheist uses their free will to reject God. Abraham was not an atheist!

Isaac too, also had free will. Isaac did not struggle when Abraham bound him, but gave himself freely.

Right before Abraham was about to sacrifice his only son, an angel of the Lord came and stopped him by saying, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (Gen 22:12). Abraham then offered up a ram to the Lord.

God made a covenant with Abraham that day to make his offspring "as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore" whereby all nations shall be blessed (Gen 22:17).

Yet, man continued to reject God. For that is what sin is-a rejection of God.

And so as we see in Genesis, Abraham and Isaac are a divine foreshadow of God and Jesus. In order for all nations to be blessed and redeemed from their sins, God offers up as a sacrifice for all mankind his only begotten Son.

Now, remember what I said about God endowing man with free will? This applied also to his Son, Jesus; who was not only fully man, but God Himself.

Jesus has the freedom to say "no" to God. But, like Isaac, Jesus puts his faith and trust in His Father and freely chooses to die for mankind's sake on Calvary (one of the mountains on Mount Moriah, where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac).

God sending His only Son to die was not an act of cruelty, but the ultimate act of love.

"For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous" (Rom 5:19).

God sent his only Son, and his Son freely accepted!

"Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.
For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life" (Jn 5:19-24).

How lucky are we as Christians, as humankind, to have a Creator who loves us so much that He would come down to earth in human form and offer Himself up as a sacrifice for our salvation!

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

-John 15:13