*if you read nothing else scroll about halfway down where I’ve written ‘please read this section’. You won’t get the point of this post however it speaks volumes of how precious you are!*

Why would a God, who people claim is love, allow His son to die on a cross? How is this God loving by letting the very person he cares the most about die in a most unloving manner?

Although this is not the number one reason people give in why they can not believe in Jesus and His Father; but it is often within the top reasons. To take it further why would Jesus, who claimed to be God, allow Himself to be killed the way He did? The short answer is love. Now the short answer seems very incompatible with how we view love. For instance, if we love someone we would do ANYTHING to make sure they are safe and cared for and free of harm. So I wonder, to what extent would you put yourself through to provide that comfort? If we are honest with ourselves, we say “Oh if I could only take your place I would” to a crying child. Or what about the baby that has a rare heart condition, would you trade your comfort for their agony? Do the Saint Jude commercials move you when you see the little girl with a bandanna? Even if your answer was “not really” I am sure there is some example out there where you wish you could take away someone’s pain and suffering if it only meant you would suffer in their place.

This compassion is what we see in Jesus. A willingness to take our pain and suffering upon Himself. “But I am not suffering” you might say, however, I am willing to bet there have been days where life just didn’t seem right or even unfair. How many times in your life have you cried yourself to sleep or wished with everything you had life itself would stop? You can not convince me that you, in some manner, are not suffering. Even if it is as simple as a hunger for something more; you might still feel uneasy with the world around you. What Jesus did was provide an escape from this suffering, uneasiness, and longing from dragging into eternity. His death on the cross was a payment for our rebellion that was the source of all this mess. Without Him, there is no hope for any of us. So like a good parent, He sees us suffering and was willing to take that away from us through His death on the cross.

“Well, so what? I mean if He were God why go through all that? Why not just forgive us and move on. That would be a lot easier, and no one has to die for that.” I am sure that might be the next question that follows however this assumes that we are on a punishment reward system with God. Sorry to break this to you but this is not how this works. Suffering and death are a RESULT of sin not a punishment for sin. Think about it this way. You are watching your toddler reaching for a hot stove you warn them not to touch the stove because it is hot and they will hurt themselves. They disobey you and reach for the stove burning their hand. The result of the child’s disobedience was that their hand got burned. You never punished the child, but the child still got hurt. This example is what God has done for us. He warned us not to touch the hot stove, but we disobeyed Him, and we are now suffering from a burned hand. However, we are dealing with much more than just hot stoves and burned hands. The result of our disobedience to God is death. And nothing can reverse this effect other than someone who can overcome death. The only being that can overcome death is God Himself. (I would love to expand on this more but, for brevity, I will move on).
So if God is all knowing, as Christians believe, and He was aware that we were not going to choose to follow Him, and He also knew what the result of our disobedience would be, why would He create us in the first place? I mean why not save His only son from ever having to go through the death on the cross by not creating us in the first place? It is true that a parent will do anything to save their child from having to go through any pain and suffering and Jesus would have never had to endure the cross if we were never created. However, that is not who He is.

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION:

Seriously if you read nothing else in this post, please read this and believe it about yourself. You are worth so much that God could NOT live without you. He loves you so much that the very thought apart from you was enough to create everything you see just for you! You are worth more than every last piece of gold and fine jewelry. We have on display paintings of Mona Lisa and valuable gems like the Hope Diamond. There are sculptures like the statue of David and magnificent works of architecture like The Louvre and The Taj Mahal. Millions of people every year walk through the halls of the Sistine Chapel to see its majestic ceiling. In fact, each of these I have mentioned draws millions of people worldwide just to enjoy the beauty of that piece of art. And yet you are much more precious than all those combined! God holds you up and says with a beaming face “That is my child… look look did you see that” You are on display for Him every day He looks at you and is totally enraptured by you. Just hearing your name makes him smile!

For the reason of how much He loves you, He was always going to create you. I mean how can one NOT create something that brings so much joy? He had to create you His love for you would not allow any other outcome. He delights in you so much that the worst thing man could ever imagine was not enough to prevent Him from doing everything He could to be with you! Imagine for a second a woman who desperately wants a baby. To feel the baby grow inside of her to have a connection to another that no one else has. One day she finds out she is pregnant. The soon to be mother has never met the baby growing inside of her, however, she has a strong emotional bond with her baby. Months of planning and preparation go into every detail of the new mom’s life in anticipation of the baby’s arrival. Even after enduring so much pain through childbirth the new mommy will very often say she would do it all over again because of the love she has for the baby.

How much more is this true when it comes to someone who loves you more than your mother? Even when you could not love Him back, He still loved you. Just like that baby can not love mom back she is still overcome with so much love for her child. She would do ANYTHING to protect that little one. Just like we see in Jesus for us.

Okay so if He loved us so much that He wanted to create us, why not just create us without an option to choose between following Him or rejecting Him? That would have saved a whole lot of problems from the very beginning. In fact, if Satan is the source of all these problems why create him?

Well let me ask this question if you love someone would you rather them love you back because they have no other option or because they love you back? See God does not want robots who follow Him and obey Him only because there was no alternative. He HAD to provide us with a choice so that we could choose love Him because we WANT to love Him not because we have no options except to love Him. Would you rather your kids do what you say because of their love for you or because you have forced them into a corner with no option other than to listen to you? If you have ever forced someone into that position, you might have become someone you are not proud of, and they might say something that hurts your feelings. However, the result would be the one you wanted. How often does that situation come up where you are just saying to yourself “why won’t they just do what I say the first time”? This question is a roundabout way of asking “why won’t they just listen to me out of their love for me”? Sadly, this is what happens when people have a choice. They will often choose the wrong path and listen to poor advice. However, how amazing is that relationship when they do listen out of their love for you? How great is it to hear “I love you” and say it not out of necessity but out of love? It is the same with God. He wants to hear “I love you,” He longs for that kind of intimacy with you. He wants you to love Him back so much He is willing to do what needs to be done to win you back to Himself. Even after you have thrown your temper tantrum and have yelled out “I hate you.” He still desires that you would love Him back even when offered other choices. What is crazy about God is that He will do ANYTHING He can to woo you to Him. But if you continually reject Him, He will not fight forever. At some point, He will say “If that is what you want I won’t stand in your way any longer.” He will step aside and allow us to chase after whatever it is we want to chase after. However, this does not mean He ultimately gives up. No, He will continue to bless you and provide for you and be there for you. He loves you too much to abandon you.
He gave up His throne, the adoration of angles, fellowship with his own Father, the safety of Heaven for the cruel, cold, heartless, and unappreciative world He created. Why? So that He can be with you. You are worth so much more than ANYTHING this world has to offer.

So the process of all this is that God wanted to create you because you mean so much to Him. He did not want to live without you, the very thought of you brings a smile to His face. How much more would your presence gladden His heart? All He wants in return is your love. But what kind of love can we give to Him if we do not have a choice? How much can a robot love? So we are given that opportunity and chose not to love Him back. Like a good parent, He gives us warnings with what the result will be. Except we do not believe or trust Him and are left with the results of not listening to Him. The result of this is death and death can only be defeated by someone who has never strayed away from righteousness. Since God wants to do everything He can to save us from having to endure the results of our betrayal, He would have to become the death that we were to suffer from. All of this He knew from before time existed and all of it revolves around one reason; He loves you that much!