There Will Never Be A Greater Love

Last evening I suggested in our weekly men’s Bible study that Jesus went to the cross knowing He would surely die, but not knowing whether or not He would actually be raised from the dead. I was immediately reminded of the fact that Jesus, on several occasions, prophesied both His death and His resurrection.  My answer to that statement, which I formulated into a couple of question, was, “He did in fact prophesy His death and His resurrection, but was He able to deliver such a prophesy because of a certain knowledge on His part, or did He prophesy based only on His own understanding of prophetic scripture, and under the instruction of the Father? Did He prophesy only because God spoke those words into His heart and He in turn to spoke it by faith to His followers?” After all, Jesus also said on several other occasions that He only did what His Father told Him to do, and He only said what His Father told Him to say.

Could it be that the agony Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, was suffered because He was (barring some miracle He [as a man] was unaware of) about to be crucified? If so, He must have known He had a choice to either willingly die for the sins of all mankind, or to avoid death by calling upon 10,000 angels to rescue Him from what otherwise was going to possibly result in Him having to spend eternity in a lake of fire - forever separated from His Father.

What impresses me about this line of thought, if true, is how much Jesus must have loved all of mankind to be willing to be the one sacrifice for all of their sins – not knowing … NOT KNOWING for certain He would be raised from the dead. Jesus had to know, absolutely, the only chance for any man to have the opportunity to once again develop a right relationship with God the Father was for Him to die; for Him to be the sacrifice for all sin. Jesus knew that He was without sin. Jesus understood from scripture that for men to be forgiven from their sin there had to be a sinless Lamb sacrificed in order to spill the only blood that could wash away all sin once and for all. Jesus knew that. He knew for certain, when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was to be that sacrifice. He knew the final decision to carry out the Father’s salvation plan was for Him, the perfect Lamb, to ultimately make that choice. Jesus had to make the choice to either die or not to die.

By choosing not to die, Jesus understood all men would be damned for eternity. Jesus knew His Father loved man so much that He was more than willing to have His own beloved Son killed so men would not have to be damned; but rather be given the chance to share in a perfect fellowship with the Father, as children of God, forever and ever. Jesus also knew that the Father would not, could not; force Him to suffer such a horrific death should He choose not to do so. But, because of Jesus’ love for the Father and His own love for mankind Jesus chose to die. He chose to believe the Father would raise Him from the dead on the third day just as it was for told; but if not, Jesus was still willing to die and spend eternity in Hell so men could escape that awful place and instead experience a wonderfully close relationship with God the Father, a relationship that was so precious to Jesus – more precious than anything … except for saving sinful man from the Hell they deserved. There was no greater love. The wonderfully glorious part of this story is that because Jesus did indeed rise on the third day, we as believers can draw on that love every moment of every day. There is no greater love.

One final note: Please turn to Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus and read his prayer to God for the Ephesian Christians. Start with chapter one verse seventeen and read to the end of the chapter. Paul prays about the incomparable great power God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead and His assigning all honor and authority to Jesus. Paul went on to write about how the Father, bestowed upon His Son, Jesus, (because of His willingness to go through the uncertainty, the pain; the torment; the anguish; the shedding His own blood; (the only blood pure and incorruptible - the only blood available for salvation in all of creation) so man could be saved from his sin. Because Jesus was willing to be that kind of sacrifice, God the Father seated Jesus at His right side. He placed Jesus far above all rule and authority; far above all power and dominion. God gave Jesus every title that could be given for all of eternity. God placed all things under Jesus’ feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church.

Then in Paul’s letter to Philippi he also writes about God the Father exalting Jesus to the highest place and giving Him the Name above all names. There will never be a greater love.