John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you think about it, it’s not like Jesus was already alive in the Kingdom learning how to run the family’s business when God decided to send Him down to earth to die on the cross. Unlike with Abraham, in Hebrews 11:17, Isaac was already born, and learning how to run the family’s business when God decided to have Abraham offer up Isaac for sacrifice. I can see Abraham now saying to God, feel my pain; and God looking down at him like, feel your pain: what are you talking about? Abraham already had the connection with his son when he had to lay him on that altar. Plus, Abraham had no knowledge beforehand that his hand would be stayed, that his son was going to rise up from that altar, and then return home with papa. God on the other hand, knew the plan for His future son because He was overseeing the meeting when the decision was first made: the “Word” would be made flesh, born of a virgin, establish the Body of Christ, die on the cross, rise from the grave in three days, and soon come home to papa! So God’s struggle at the time wasn’t so much to make the decision whether to give up His only begotten son: that decision was already made, already a done deal. There was no pain for God to feel at that time from the apparent loss of a father, and son connection that was yet to exist as it had earlier existed between Abraham and Isaac.

So what was it that God was experiencing to such a degree, that triggered Him to set the events of His fatherhood into motion at the time that He did? What was it that made Him look over at the “Word” and say, the time has come for you to go? We actually get that answer in the beginning of John 3:16, where it says “For God so loved the world.” You can see the question jumping right out at you: the question that jumps out says why could God not just “love” us? Why did it take Him having to “so love” us in order for us to be saved, and for us to love Him back? Well, God is a Spirit, and a Spirit is moved by the essence of what it is. Let’s do this like you would check a simple math problem to see if it is correct by applying reverse subtraction to it. Jesus paid our sin debt in full = because Jesus was sin free minus the world was running rampant with sin, and God had enough of His image being mired in sin. So God had so loved the world for so long, that He knew from the outcomes of trying to love us in many different ways that the only way to save us from eternal death was to send one that shares the same divine nature as He did: so He released the final back up plan, and became a father. No, God did not yet feel the pain of losing Jesus at the time He released the “Word” to come to us in flesh as Abraham was feeling with Isaac on the way to the altar. However, God did experience every pain associated with the sin that we were in, and for that He did the only thing left to show the greatness of His love for us: He sent His son. After the failure with Adam in the Garden, the cleansing with the ark, Judges, Kings, Moses and the law, and just on and on He loved us to no avail. I only named a handful of the many love events that God did to love us just to jump-start your thinking, but God did so much more to show his love that we couldn’t list them all if we tried. You know what we say, and it’s a code that I live by: if you want something done right, or if you want it done the way that you want it done, you need to do it yourself. It’s Father time!

Stay Tune,

Adopted Son