“Intentionally Choosing Death… How Strange”
by brian rushing
“It is not strange that He, the Author of life, should rise from the dead. If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than that he should rise again.”
Absolutely.
It is not odd that the one who raised people from the dead could Himself rise from the dead. But it is very remarkable (strange, odd, unfathomable) that He would die in the first place.
And yet, parents, isn’t it true that you would willingly trade places with one of your children facing death in order that they (the child) could continue on in life? Certainly. Many children unfortunately end up in the hospital struggling for life. Parents pray fervently, and many will somewhere in one or more of those prayers ask God to let them trade places with their precious child. It is natural for us to be willing to choose death in order for us to save someone we desperately love.
What Jesus did for us is similar. The only way that I would be able to continue on in life forever was for Him to die as a substitute and take the punishment I deserved. So He willingly, intentionally chose death due to His love. In fact, He was born to die.
Though I now try to avoid using the word “church” to refer to a location, I used to call the main worship service on Sunday, “Big Church.” I still hear kids call it that today. And the word “Incarnation” is one of those “Big Church” words. At it’s simplest, it means a divine being taking a human form… God becoming a man.
How do we wrap our heads around that idea? Well, the New Testament doesn’t encourage us to worry too much over how it works, but rather encourages us “to worship God for the love that was shown in it. For it was a great act of condescension and self-humbling. ‘He, who had always been God by nature,’ writes Paul, ‘did not cling to his privileges as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man, And, plainly seen as a human being, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal.’ And all this was for our salvation.”
“The key text in the New Testament for interpreting the Incarnation is ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake’s he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ When Paul talks of the Son as having emptied himself and become poor, what he has in mind…is the laying aside not of divine powers and attributes but of divine glory and dignity.”
God the Son, Jesus, while in Heaven in His full divine glory and dignity loved me and you. Due to that love, He laid aside His divine glory and dignity for a time so that he could be born as a human with a plan to die a cruel death as a substitute sacrifice for you and me. In your eyes, I’m not worth that. And in my eyes, you’re not worth that. OK, maybe you and I would pick some people who we’d say are worth it, but there are a whole lot that we’d leave out. So I’m glad we weren’t the ones having to make a decision as to whether or not to lay aside divine glory and honor and dignity for the people walking around on this giant ball called Earth.
It is strange to think that Jesus…God the Son…would die at all, much less that He would willingly choose to die for such ungrateful, irritating people (including you and me). But, strangely, oddly, fortunately…He did!
Be sure to thank Him for setting aside His divine prerogatives in order to die for you! And then strive to tell this great news to someone else today.
(Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)