At What Cost???

We are loved beyond our capacity to comprehend.

I saw that on the back of a cd I own recently, and it struck me that, that one little statement says so much. We ARE loved beyond our capacity to comprehend! John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Most people if they know one scripture, that’s the one. Yet it amazes me how people nonchalantly rattle off that scripture, not really thinking about what it says or how much that one act of our behalf cost God.

God gave His Son to save us! He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sin. Can any one of us, myself included, honestly say that we would sacrifice one of our children for anyone? I can’t. I couldn’t. I look at my children and I KNOW that I would sacrifice myself before I let something happen to one of them. Yet God looked at it differently. He knew there was no way we could ever atone for our sin and be reconciled to Him without some action on His part.  Prior to Jesus’ coming, God had instituted a sacrificial system, where we could atone by sacrificing a lamb, or a bull, but that did not take away our sin.  While we were forgiven, we still carried the sin with us.

John 1:29 says ‘Look, behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’  Jesus was God’s son and the perfect sacrifice. Have any of us really thought about what it cost God to save us? Those of us who are parents might be able to begin to think about what it would do to us to lose a child. Those who have lost a child most certainly know what that devastation is like. But I don’t think we will ever really know how much it hurt God to separate Himself from His Son. Nor do I think we can truly comprehend how it hurt Christ to see His Father turn His back on Him. 

Like so many other people I never really thought about it before. I knew God sent Jesus to save us, but it had never really sunk in what it cost God to do it.  Now that I have thought about it, I am just blown away that God did something I could never bring myself to do for anyone else. He LOVED US to the point of a death sentence for His Son.  If you haven’t thought it about it, take a few minutes now to think about the price your salvation cost God. If you do, I promise you won’t rattle off John 3:16 again without thinking about the price of your salvation.