Redeeming love
Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9 “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! Know ye not that when you see Me you see the Father”.
One of the purposes of Christ coming in the flesh was to reveal to us what God is really like. To show us what the Father heart of God is like. To reveal that Jehovah ‘the God to be feared who dwelt in thick darkness and in the mount with a voice that thundered’ is father-like and desires that mankind would enter into a relationship with Him, one in which He can reveal Himself and bring us into an experiential knowledge of His love.
A love that can be felt in the heart, not just known in the head; a love that would radically affect the very core of the recipient such that once smitten by this love they would be rendered captivated in such a way that it would cause an unconditional and total surrender of their lives. By knowing and feeling this love of God towards us through Christ we will be touched in our hearts to freely and willingly love Him.
Jehovah the Father wanted to show this love to us and for us to understand that it is a special type of love, a redeeming love. A love that sought a way to save an enemy from certain destruction - an enemy who had wronged, ignored and rebelled against Jehovah. A love that, at all costs, would find a way to deliver this enemy from a deserved judgement, a love that would find a way to redeem them and render them safe and secure and leave them in a condition that would fit them to remain so. This love is a divine love that gives fully of itself for another, even an enemy, such is its unconquerable goodness and kindness towards its object.
But how, you may ask, can an enemy be delivered from a sentence that they richly deserve? Couldn’t they just be pardoned? But surely, that would not be justice nor would justice be served by pardon without payment of the debt. How could mercy be extended to the guilty and justice still be served? This was surely a divine dilemma and how could it be solved so that the guilty one could escape the deserved judgement and certain death?
One of the greatest mysteries in the Universe resides in this question and the divine dilemma it poses. The problem it raises affects every person that ever lived, including you & me. How could the price be paid to release the captive? Maybe, another could be found who could pay the price to the judge. But all that could be sought are also morally bankrupt and unable to pay the price (no man can redeem the life of another) and are themselves under the same sentence (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; Rom 3:23).
No, the guilty could not pay for the guilty. What was God to do if He was to deliver such as these? How was He to satisfy the just demands of the Law and yet to have mercy on the guilty and release them? One thing was for certain, the guilty had no means by which to escape of themselves and the penalty before them was certain death.
Oh, if there was only one who could satisfy the righteous demands of the Law, who was wholly righteous and had never broken the Law, maybe such a one could plead on their behalf for mercy. This one could indeed do that because of their righteousness, but the debt still must be paid in full for the guilty if they would be released. There was no way out of it, if only a righteous one was acceptable and was to help the guilty one escape then the righteous one must take the judgement of the guilty, the righteous one must take the place of the guilty and pay the debt, a life for a life!
Where is such a one to be found? There are none among men; they are all guilty (all their righteousness is as filthy rags). Who will stand in the gap? Who can deliver? The only answer to a divine dilemma is a divine solution. Only an omniscient, all-powerful Being could find an answer to the great dilemma and the terrible plight of mankind brought about by sin and the inevitable judgement it incurred. God found the answer in Himself! Only the life blood of a righteous man could redeem mankind. More than that, the sacrifice would have to be so effective that it would fully satisfy God, the Judge and His broken Law, and have eternal value for all those it would redeem. Only a divine substitute would fulfil these demands and so one of the greatest mysteries of eternity unfolded in time. In a great act of condescension and humility, God became man!
The redeeming love of the Father towards His lost and perishing creation moved Him to send His own precious and beloved Son from the loving intimacy of His bosom to dwell in an imperfect world where He would suffer as a human and experience the frailties of human life. The Father sent Him, in the knowledge that, as His Father, He would have to watch without intervening as His Beloved, the apple of His eye, the one He loved, the one His heart was knit to, the one with whom He was pleased beyond measure and who satisfied His great heart, suffered at the hands of sinful men.
To watch as His flesh was rent apart by the nails of a cruel cross and then have to turn His face away as His beloved Son took the foulness of sin upon Him. Who will know how the Father’s heart must have been wrenched as He watched His Son endure this and what was it that made Him restrain His holy anger and power towards those who were breaking His commandments to make all this happen to His Son, so as not to deliver Him from their murdering hands? For what father, would not try to save his child if its life was endangered.
It was because of Redeeming Love for rebels such as these that the Father could allow this to happen to His Son (Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive them). It was because the Father and the Son loved a fallen race and desired its salvation, such that Jesus in redeeming love could suffer and die at their hands to redeem them. It was also because of redeeming love that the Father’s heart would beat with an agonising love for His Son as He allowed and endured His Precious Son to be tortured and crucified by sinful men. What a price to pay! What manner of love is this?
What depth of mercy is this that God the Father would provide such a personal, precious and costly redeeming gift for the human race.
Let us not be too hasty to move from this thought but dwell on it to the extent that our souls be enriched and humbled in unutterable gratitude to our redeeming God, who gave His very best to save us who were at our very worst . As His enemies, not fit for anything but death and His righteous judgement, He chose to bring us so very close to His heart.
To what end did the Father and the Son plan and execute such a plan of salvation? That we might be one, as He and the Father are one; that we might, by redeeming love, be brought with Jesus into the intimacy of the bosom of the Father to feel His powerful love, His care, His protection, His assurance of His favour and good will towards us.
To know now that finally our souls can have rest with no fear of condemnation, no fear of the future and what it holds, no fear of death or eternity beyond the grave, safe and secure in the Father’s bosom.
Maybe you are reading this today and do not have this glorious hope in your soul and you are still outside the kingdom of God with an uncertain eternity before you and the thought of death staring victoriously at you whether it is near or, seemingly, far away. The Bible is clear that if we die in our sins we will perish and unless we repent we will perish.
But God also declares in the Scriptures, “Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Eze 33:11).
“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes (trusts their lives fully to Him as their only hope of being saved from the coming judgement on sin) in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,”
Redeeming love has made salvation from a lost eternity possible, so come in repentance to Him today, come believing in His work on the cross for you, trust Him completely with your life and you will find pardon for your sins and rest and peace with God, a peace that passes all understanding. For all who come to Him for mercy, acknowledging they are sinners, He will not cast off, but He will receive them, for all who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved. To such He will give eternal life and they shall not perish and they shall know the wonderful redeeming love of the Father and the Son.
If you hear His voice calling to you today then: “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David” (Isa 55:3).
And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).
