Almost anyone can quote you John 3:16, 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.   Why is it so important to God that mankind be saved?  Wouldn’t it be simpler for God to destroy us off the face of the earth and start over and create a new race of beings that were not bent on defying Him?  You would think so.  It isn’t God’s fault that Adam and everyone born since him has rebelled against Him.  This gets me to wondering why He feels so responsible for the mess we ourselves have made. What’s in it for HIM?

            Sure, God created us, but does that make Him responsible to pay the price for our sins?  It shouldn’t.  It is written in Ezekiel 18:20, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

 

            But God holds Himself to a far higher standard than He requires of us.  Jesus came to earth in the form of a man, and it is written in John 1:1-4 that we were created by Him.  Let’s look at those verses;

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 

            We see by these verses, the pre-incarnate Jesus created us.  Was He called “Jesus” in the beginning when He was with God, and was God?  I don’t know.  But this I do know; from before the foundation of the world, the Lamb of God was slain.  He willingly and freely chose to redeem us from sin and death. And the world had not even been formed yet, nor mankind, nor had sin ever entered the mind of man. Yet He made Himself responsible for our sins, though He did not form us to sin, nor had any part in our sins, nor did He cause us to sin.  Instead of forsaking us to justly bear the punishment of our own sins, He laid down His life as the ransom for us.  Why?  What did we ever do to deserve that?  I can tell you in two words:  absolutely nothing.

 

            This is the amazing thing about God; He doesn’t always do what is fair.  I sinned and the law says the soul that sins shall die.  It’s only fair, then, that I should die for my sins.  But Jesus paid the price for me, and I walk away free.  Is that fair?  How can it be fair? Jesus never sinned in any way, yet the punishment for my sins, and your sins, and all the sins of the world was laid upon Him.  And He died in the most excruciating way that mankind could devise, death by crucifixion, the cruelest form of torture known to man.

 

            Did Jesus know what they were going to do to Him to satisfy the cost of sin?  Yes, He prophesied to His disciples exactly how He would die, and yet He chose to bear it.  He knew the horrors awaiting Him, and in the final hours, prayed to His Father that if there was any other way, any way at all, could the cup pass from Him, unless He drink of it.  But there was no other way, and He knew it.  He could have chosen at the last moment to escape and leave the area.  After all, He knew what was coming.  Why did He stay, knowing full well what they were going to do to Him?

             I can understand why He died for you.  What I can’t understand, is why He died for me.  The Apostle Paul had said that he was chief amongst sinners.  But if Paul had known me, he would have had to sit down and be satisfied with second place.

 There’s only one explanation I can offer why Jesus chose the cross over staying home in heaven to let us die in our sins.  He loves us.  HE LOVES US!!

 

             How can there be that much love in the whole universe?  I don’t know, but it seems we vastly underestimate the power of God’s love for us.  Maybe it’s because we do such a poor job of loving one another.  It doesn’t take much for us to be unloving to one another, a wrong look, or a perceived injustice, or maybe even a harsh word spoken out of anguish.  We can get real ugly with each other over basically nothing.

 

            And yet, God loves us unconditionally, even though every kind of love we offer Him or anyone else has strings attached.  We may think we can love unconditionally, but I dare you to try it for even a day. You’ll fail, just like I do.  Oh, we want to be able to love the way God does, but it just isn’t within our human nature to be able to do so.

 

             We’re a brick shy of a load when it comes to loving one another.  Do you know why we’re a brick shy?  Because we just threw it at someone who did something we didn’t like!  And then we wonder why Jesus had to die such a terrible death for our sins?

 

            Why do I say that our love for God even has strings attached?  1 John 4:19 says, We love Him, because He first loved us.  That’s a pretty sad case, but it’s true.  If God wasn’t constantly doing things for us, we would totally ignore Him.  Yet, God loves us, in spite of the fact that we constantly use Him.   Yes, that’s the bare, naked truth.  We are all God users.  I am, you are, the whole lot of us are.  There isn’t a single one of us who would love and serve God if there wasn’t something in it for us.

 

             Ask yourself this; would you love and serve God if He offered absolutely nothing in return? If God did not offer you salvation for loving Him, would you serve Him anyway? If He did not provide for your needs, would you still love Him?  If God didn’t heal you, would you still adore Him?  Better still, could you love and adore God if He were just a plain ole rock on the ground that sat there and did nothing? On second thought, that may be a bad question, because there are people in the world that do worship idols made of stone which can neither see, nor hear, nor speak, nor do anything at all.  But even they think they are getting some benefit for it, else they wouldn’t be doing it, would they?  You see, all mankind is motivated by one thing, greed; what’s in it for me?

 

             I would to God that I could love Him, serve Him and worship Him 24/7, without hoping for or asking Him to do something for me.  But the truth is, try as I may, I fall short of the mark and I suspect we all do.  Yet….God totally delights in loving us with a love that we are totally incapable of returning to Him.  It doesn’t seem fair for His sake.

 

            He has every right to consider us a sorry bunch of users, and for all the demands we continually make on Him, it would seem He would grow weary of us.  But it’s amazing how He just keeps on loving us, and there isn’t a thing we can do to stop Him. You see, there was a reason why Jesus came to die on the cross, and John 3:17 sums it up for us.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be SAVED!

 

            What’s He saving us for?  Himself!  Why?  Well, it’s written in Ephesians 2:7, That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

 

            So if anyone ever asks you why Jesus came, now you know!