“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:17-18
This is a very bold claim by Jesus. He has authority over His own life... something no human as a creation of God can really claim. But Jesus is both Creator and created. And in the Father’s plan (to which Jesus totally agreed and yielded Himself) Jesus will die for the sins of the world. Jesus boldly says He will lay down His life by His own choice (not really so hard... any human can choose to die) AND He will take it up again! Jesus claims authority to be raised from the dead! That’s where the impossibility of Jesus being merely human happens.
The death and resurrection of Jesus then are no conspiracy. He did not die by accident. He pleased the Father by giving Himself to His mission to die for sin. He knew it would be completed in His resurrection from the dead. Jesus came to do the Father’s will. And the atonement is the climax of human history as God and man are one in Jesus. And human sinful enmity against God is eradicated by the death and resurrection of Christ!
Thank You, Father, for loving and sending Your Son! Thank You, Jesus, for laying down Your life and taking it up again for us! Amen
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