The Love of a Father For His Son

Amazing how time flys when you are sick. I've been fighting the crud and allergies since my Birthday. Ain't 51 fun...

I've been contemplating Easter for several days and wanting to look at it from a very simple, human perspective. It's easy to get too bogged down in the Theological particulars and ramifications, but we often overlook a very simple, yet challenging fact. The love of the Father for his son and how that relates to us today.

To set the stage, I called my own father when my son was about one. I was in tears as I was overwhelmed by my love for my son and the awareness of how much my father loved me. Prior to experiencing it for myself, I couldn't comprehend the depth of that love. It was different from any other love I had experienced. Certainly different then my love for my parents or siblings, and even different than my love for my wife. And it was much more tangible than my love for God. But it also gave me more of an awareness of how much God loves me.

It dawned on me that the exchanges and emotions we shared are given to us by God and are a reflection of Christ's obedience to His Father and the love of the Father for his son, and by extension, His love for us.

Christ went to the cross not so that he could defeat Satan, although that fact is true. He went to the cross so that we could be restored into a relationship with our heavenly father. It was the only way. Our sin separates us from God. His justice demands that sin be atoned for. But His mercy desires that none should perish. God has provided a way for all who believe in Him to not only avoid Hell, but be in a loving relationship with Him. While he died for our sins, His victory is that He rose from the grave. That is the significance of Easter. Christ defeated death and sits at the right hand of God.

Christ loves us so much that he was willing to take our sins upon himself so that we could have that relationship. God loves us so much that he provided the way for His Justice to be served and His mercy to be realized. What is so amazing to me is that God knew all of this before time as we know it began and Christ knew that I would continue to sin even after accepting salvation. Yet He still took my sins upon himself and died for me.

No matter how far our sins have separated us from Him, when we make that simple confession with a sincere and contrite heart that we are sorry for our past lives, acknowledge our need for forgiveness and salvation and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we are restored back into that relationship with the God of love.

As I think about the sacrifices that I would make for my son, it humbles me to think of the depth of the sacrifice that Christ made for me. I would do anything in my power to give Timmy that which I felt the strongest about. But I could never do what Christ did.