“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
John 3:16
I had come to a thought today, something that never really crossed my mind fully until now. And that is the ‘risk’ our God and Father took, by sending his Son to die for our sins.
What risk is that? You ask? It was the risk of God losing his Son forever.
One might wonder, isn’t God’s plan unstoppable? His prophecy undeniable? Yes, that is true, and so in reality, by God’s promises, it was guaranteed, from our point of view, that Yeshua would have shown to be the Messiah and Saviour for our sins. Yet, from God’s timeframe, his realm of existence, the timeless place he lives, there was risk taken from that very initiative.
Whilst God will always accomplish his purposes, things do not always go to plan, for he gives us freewill, and as a result he has to work around this to resolve his plans. A key example of this is Adam and Eve, who God intended to use that they fill the Earth with righteous, perfect, happy descendants in a world of peace (Genesis 1:28). However, they did what was forbidden to them, and hence our Father had to act to rectify this problem.
This in itself was an example of the risk God took, by giving his creations free will, including the angels, of which Satan once was (Isaiah 14:12). They were able to either work in harmony with God, or resist that harmony, and bring disaster upon the universe. Even in this, God expresses his love, that whilst he has rules and laws which are for our benefit, that he wishes us to “follow them” with self-aware and understanding minds, out of choice, not out of programming.
So how does this relate to Yeshua and the risk of God losing his Son forever?
Well, we should bear in mind, that Satan attempted to test Yeshua, many times. In this, Satan was attempting to cause Yeshua to sin, by betraying God, and to perform an act of worship to him instead. We know Yeshua proved loyal, and died faithfully, even unto death (Philippians 2:8)…. but, what if he didn’t? What if Yeshua has succumbed to Satan’s attempts? Well, as for mankind’s hope, this opens up some very uncomfortable alternate scenarios one could conjure, one such being the possibility of there being no hope at all! Of course, I am confident our Father would have still found a way. However, this would have surely meant the loss of his Son to condemnation, just as it was for Adam and Satan!
This, I feel, is not a subject that is often pondered by Christians, and is something we should meditate more upon.
Many would say that ultimately “God didn’t lose anything”, and find John 3:16 difficult to understand. Some even mock the scripture, for after all, God raised his Son from the dead, so… what did he lose? What did he give up for us? And this is where I have come to see… Our Father, besides having to watch his Son suffer unspeakable tortures, could have lost everything most precious to him, for the sake of saving humanity, the majority of which, do not even express appreciation for God, nor his Son.
We must bear in mind, sin leads to death, and for perfect beings, such as Satan and Adam… who have not inherited sin as a curse from a forefather, as we have, but rather, appeared to have rejected God outright, and committed the unforgivable sin… this may have been the case for Yeshua did he give into temptation. Satan knew this, and it is why he attempted it.
Unlike God the Father, Yeshua could be tempted, and this shows the risk Yah took for us. As scripture says, Yeshua was tempted, just as we are! And hence it is why Yeshua empathises with us in a way that the Father does not.
- “…God cannot be tempted by evil… ” – James 1:13
- “…Yeshua the Son of God…. has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” – Hebrews 4:14-15
- “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin”. – 1 John 5:16-17
Thank God, literally, that Yeshua proved faithful all the way to death, and achieved immortality, in that God’s firstborn was able to retain his life and conquer death, and that we also may conquer death through him!
I would imagine, the echoing of this pain and anxiety, is what Abraham must have felt, when he was told to offer up his son, perhaps unsure if he would see him again:
- “’Take your son,’ God said, ‘your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you’… Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. Just then the messenger of the YHWH called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,’ said the messenger, ‘for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me’…” – Genesis 22:2, 10-12
- “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death”. – Hebrews 11:17–19
This was not only a test of faith, and a demonstration of a promise, but also a sharing of pain, a lesson of understanding. Perhaps some part of Abraham would have been unsure if he would see his son again… and if so, perhaps this also echoes the Father’s thoughts and feelings also.
Thus, I feel that by meditating on this, we can more fully appreciate the depth of John 3:16, and the depth of the love God shown to mankind, by giving us his Son, knowing full well, he may have lost him forever.
Proselyte of Yah 