Father and Son, Love is sacrificial

As a new dad of about a week, I can only now begin to understand the sacrifice that our Lord God the Father made by sending His only begotten Son to die on our behalf.

We read in John 3:16

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When my son is crying because he is hungry, I actually feel his pain and begin to feel hurt when I see him looking for food, I can only imagine the pain I would feel if, God forbid, he came down with a cold. How then did God our Father feel whilst watching His beloved Son take a punishment fit for us sinners? I can only imagine the hurt our Father felt watching Jesus hang upon the Cross, but this should make us even more thankful for the sacrifice that our Lord God took upon Himself to defeat sin, death and satan.

Love is sacrificial, true love that flows from the goodness of God is not selfish but rather it "does not seek its own" as the blessed St Paul states. As parents all over the world make sacrifices for their children because of love, we as Christians should seek this love from God to convey it to the rest of humanity. The hurt we feel for for our children we should feel for strangers who have fallen on hard times or are being persecuted, mistreated or abused. Although God loves His Son Jesus Christ, He loves the world so much that He died for us while we were still sinners, we read in Romans 5 -

 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will hardly die for a wicked man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf even though we are completely undeserving due to our sinful nature, but He offers us repentance and forgiveness by His Holy and life giving Cross, where he paid the price of shedding every last drop of blood in order to reverse the transgressions of Adam.

This is the epitome of sacrificial love and we should pray, fast and give alms so that the Lord God will see our hearts and begin to dwell within us, and His love will burn the thorns and thistles that attempt to choke our faith. By sacrificing time, money, effort and energy to assist those who do not deserve our love, those who we do not know and possibly despise us, we are following in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen