Jennifer Rogers
Supporter
Ephesians 3:18-19: “So that you, being steadfast in love, may be united with the saints, and understand what its breadth, how long, how high, and how deep it is, and to be known in the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the riches of God.”
Granted, we have much to know, but nothing is more necessary than the love of God. Knowing the Love of God is above all knowledge. God's love is vast, deeper than the sea, higher than the sky, longer and wider than time, space, and immeasurable. Enjoying God's Love, we feel sweeter than anything in the world. Our spiritual need is the love of God.
Remembering the scripture: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16), I realized that: God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through His Son.
However, someone asked: "If God loves people, why doesn't God simply forgive them? So all are saved and His Son does not have to come down to earth to die?”
To answer this question, we need to recall that death is the result of a sin committed by man as God told Adam and Eve: “In the day you eat (of the forbidden fruit) you will surely have to die” (Gen 2:17). Paul also further explains the causes of death: “For one man sin entered the world, and death was brought about by sin; Thus death has spread to all because all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
So everyone must die because that is the result of sin. No one can avoid this consequence except Jesus and Mary (despite having a human body but not being entangled with original sin and all other sins). But Jesus died in His human body not as a result of sin, because He was completely innocent. He was innocent but offered himself to die for sinners as Saint Paul said: "God sent his own Son to take on a body like ours to atone for our sins. God condemned sin in the body of his Son” (Romans 8:3).
That is why Jesus willingly took up the cross, and endured all the tortures, so that in the end "had to taste death, that all might be saved through the grace of God" (Heb 2:9). Jesus himself confirms this in the Book of Revelation: “I am the Living One. I died, and now I live forever, and I hold the keys of death and hell” (Revelation 1:18).
It is so clear that Jesus came down to earth, became a man, and died just for obeying the will of the Father and for loving people. That is the "culmination of love" that God has for us.
John describes Jesus' love for people: "There was a sick man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha. So the sisters sent messengers to Jesus and said, "Lord, the one you love is sick." Hearing the news, Jesus immediately said, "This sickness is not to death, but to glorify God, and therefore the Son of God to be glorified" (John 11:1-4).
Thus, he experienced the joys of his childhood, the glory of his preaching life, and the sufferings of his Passion, to manifest the supreme love of the Son of God made man, as Saint John said. : "Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
Remembering the scripture: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16), I realized that: God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world through His Son.
However, someone asked: "If God loves people, why doesn't God simply forgive them? So all are saved and His Son does not have to come down to earth to die?”
To answer this question, we need to recall that death is the result of a sin committed by man as God told Adam and Eve: “In the day you eat (of the forbidden fruit) you will surely have to die” (Gen 2:17). Paul also further explains the causes of death: “For one man sin entered the world, and death was brought about by sin; Thus death has spread to all because all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
So everyone must die because that is the result of sin. No one can avoid this consequence except Jesus and Mary (despite having a human body but not being entangled with original sin and all other sins). But Jesus died in His human body not as a result of sin, because He was completely innocent. He was innocent but offered himself to die for sinners as Saint Paul said: "God sent his own Son to take on a body like ours to atone for our sins. God condemned sin in the body of his Son” (Romans 8:3).
That is why Jesus willingly took up the cross, and endured all the tortures, so that in the end "had to taste death, that all might be saved through the grace of God" (Heb 2:9). Jesus himself confirms this in the Book of Revelation: “I am the Living One. I died, and now I live forever, and I hold the keys of death and hell” (Revelation 1:18).
It is so clear that Jesus came down to earth, became a man, and died just for obeying the will of the Father and for loving people. That is the "culmination of love" that God has for us.
John describes Jesus' love for people: "There was a sick man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha. So the sisters sent messengers to Jesus and said, "Lord, the one you love is sick." Hearing the news, Jesus immediately said, "This sickness is not to death, but to glorify God, and therefore the Son of God to be glorified" (John 11:1-4).
Thus, he experienced the joys of his childhood, the glory of his preaching life, and the sufferings of his Passion, to manifest the supreme love of the Son of God made man, as Saint John said. : "Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).