What is the greatest sign of God’s love?
Imagine you are invited to a birthday party for your niece. As the day nears, you begin thinking about what to buy for a present. You love your brother and his daughter dearly, and you want to get as nice a gift as possible. So you think about your budget. You have allocated, let’s say, $1,000 for the year for gifts, including birthdays, Christmas, weddings, anniversaries, and surprises. Accounting for what you have already spent on gifts for the year and the spending you know is still to come, you figure that you should spend $100 on your niece’s gift.
That’s an expensive gift, but on this occasion it just doesn’t feel generous enough. You want to give more, but to do so you will need to cut spending elsewhere. So you look over your budget and see that you have allocated $100 for eating out and entertainment. Hmmm. Taking $50 from that category is relatively painless. So you buy your beloved niece a generous gift costing $150.
Suppose, however, that you didn’t have an easy category in your budget to reduce. Suppose that the only way to get more money for the gift was to reduce your grocery budget for the month, and your grocery budget was already tight. Taking $50 from groceries will require your having no desserts and little meat, as well as buying generic brands instead of the name brands you enjoy. And suppose your heart overflows with love for your brother and niece, and you decide not only to do that but to go further and spend $300 on your niece’s gift, and as a consequence you are willing to eat as little as possible for one month. That is not merely a gift, not merely a generous gift, but a sacrificial gift.
The sacrificial love of Jesus
In his great love, God is a giver, a generous giver, but he is far more than a generous giver. He is a sacrificial giver. In his great love, he gives to the point of great loss and staggering cost.
2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
Before being conceived in the womb of Mary, the Son of God was rich in heaven. He was worshiped by angels and saints, enjoying the love and presence of his glorious Father, in the perfect comfort of one who is a spiritual being living in the spiritual paradise of heaven, executing his Father’s will in heaven and earth. His glory was infinite and perfect.
Yet, at his Father’s loving command, the Son of God chose to become poor. He left that beautiful place to become a man, to take on weak human flesh, and through that body to become susceptible to fatigue, pain, agony, limitation, and worst of all the abuse of evil men. When he gave himself up to the Roman soldiers, to beatings, to scourging, to the cross, to bearing our sins, to the wrath of God, he made the greatest of all sacrifices. He loved us not just generously, but sacrificially.
The sacrificial love of the Father
The sacrificial love of the Son of God is matched only by the sacrificial love of the Father. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” If God gave us something material like more possessions, that doesn’t really cost him anything, for he can create more of whatever he gives. But giving his Son to suffer and die for people who reject God, that is costly.
One thing I can hardly bare to see is the parents of a soldier receiving his or her remains in a casket as a casualty of war. That is a parent’s greatest sacrifice for their country. And that was the Father’s sacrifice for you.
God the Father’s love is not merely a giving love, or a generous love, but a sacrificial love.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We prefer to give out of abundance, to give comfortably, not out of poverty.
God’s way: God loves in a way that is willing to suffer significant loss for the sake of another’s gain.
Life principle: God’s sacrifice for us rightly motivates our sacrifice for him.
