The Finest Gift Of Them All
“Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin , and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned .” — Romans 5:12
“None of them can ever redeem a brother
Or give to God a ransom for him,
( The ransom price for their life is so precious
That it is always beyond their reach )” — Psalms 49:7, 8
We all have inherited sin because our progenitor Adam — once a perfect man — sold us unto sin. When he together with his equally ungrateful and narcissistic wife failed their Maker’s test of allegiance they immediately fell under Satan’s thumb. What’s worse, they gradually began to die just as God assured them they would. ( Genesis 2:17 )
Of course, had they had children before they turned their backs on their loving Creator everything might well have ended up much differently. As it was, these ingrates decided to have their children after making their fatal error. Like a parent passing down a fatal heritable disease, not a single child of their’s, hence, could ever be born with the sublime perfection and eternal life they threw away for absolutely nothing. Their catastrophic choice is the reason why none born afterward could ever redeem us from sin and death.
What Now?
What was required was “a corresponding ransom.” ( 1 Timothy 2:6 ) A ransom that would be equivalent in value to the perfect human life that Adam forfeited and lost for the rest of us — “soul for soul” — Exodus 21:23. Now, the concept of a ransom is comprised of the following two elements:
First, a ransom is the amount paid to facilitate a release or to buy something back. It is similar to the price paid for the redemption of a prisoner of war, for instance.
Second, a ransom is the cost that covers, or pays, the price of something. It is comparable to the sum given to take care of damages from an injury. To illustrate, when someone causes an accident, he or she must pay a cost that adequately corresponds to, or equates to, the valuation of the totaled or damaged property.
So as it stood, we were all doomed. Condemned to continue being born in sin, to forever keep suffering and dying for all time because no imperfect man or woman could ever pay the cost of restoring all of humanity to its original perfect state. The cost was simply insurmountable.
The Perfect Solution — But At What Cost?
Jehovah God grasped this situation better than anyone. Therefore, he lovingly intervened making it possible for one more perfect human being to be born and also disposed to accept the value of this one’s own perfect life, should he choose to give it, as the corresponding ransom for what Adam forfeited.
Seeing as the remedy called only for a perfect human life Jehovah could have transferred the life of any one of his spirit sons — or angels — into Mary’s womb. ( Job 1:6; 38:7; Luke 3:38 ) That certainly would have satisfied the legal condition.
Instead, he dispatched his “only-begotten” son, Michael, who was given the name Jesus when he was born. ( John 1:18; Matthew 1:21 ) But why? Why him?
Because Michael — Jesus in his prehuman existence — loved us very, very deeply. Proverbs 8:31 reveals that when he worked beside Jehovah God in His creative acts as his master worker, “the things he was fond of were with the sons of men.”
Jesus adored us so much that he gladly jumped at the chance to rescue us. He happily volunteered to abandon his illustrious position in heaven — second only to Almighty God Himself — to then be born a helpless baby to be raised among flawed, imperfect people. He would be healthier, stronger, faster, more talented and certainly much more intelligent than any other person on the face of the earth.
Can you imagine how irritating it must have been for him growing up? To be constantly surrounded by individuals who — in his estimation — fumbled along in life? How silly they all must have seemed to him!
But did he care? Not one bit! He loved people and just like his loving Father focused on the good in them. He could have easily treated others callously or with apathy as, sadly, too many extremely talented and ingenious people tend to do today. After all, Jesus literally was better in every way imaginable than everyone alive.
He could have easily dedicated his life to amassing extraordinary wealth, power or global fame for all time. Remember, he was perfect, so he had no limit on his life expectancy. He could have even married and created the most powerful and richest dynasty in all of human history. There was no limit to what he could have accomplished for himself. Anything he put his mind to was a guaranteed success!
Incredibly, though, he chose to be humble, approachable, kind, gentle, compassionate, patient and very, very loving. This really isn’t a surprise, though, when we consider who his role-model was. For untold eons and eons he lived and worked alongside his indescribably loving Father before he was sent to Earth. In fact, he came to reflect His personality and manner of being so perfectly that he could claim, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also.” — John 14:9
Instead of selfishly using his gifts, talents, and abilities for his own personal gain, he dedicated his life to the service of others. Compelled by his love and compassion — and sometimes even at a great cost to himself — he healed the lame, the blind, the mute, the possessed and the sick, fed the poor and — to the shock and delight of some — even brought back to life their dead loved ones. He freely forgave the repentant, inspired those without hope and was patient with those who would have brought any of us to our wits’ end.
Most important of all, he lovingly taught the humble and sincere. He was a magnificent teacher! He beautifully explained the true purpose of life as well as many universal moral values and duties that could resolve any and every cause of distress in personal relationships or their lives in general. He helped them understand who their Creator was, how to talk to Him and even how to develop a close personal relationship with Him. He would leave these dumbfounded with how simple it all really was.
He truly was the greatest man who had ever lived.
All this he gladly did — and certainly with no expectation of payment — only to later then be betrayed, denigrated, insulted, abused, mutilated and finally brutally murdered by those same ones he came to love so much.
However, this is not the whole story.
You see, Jesus knew — even before volunteering to go to Earth — he knew millennia in advance that this would be his fate if he accepted the role of the Messiah. He was acutely aware of all this by way of the messianic prophecies His Father inspired the Bible amanuenses to record.
He knew!
He did it anyway
He happily and proudly sacrificed everything so each and every person ever born or to be born, including you and I, could have that one chance — that ONE and ONLY chance — to choose to save ourselves from our torturous slavery to sin and death:
“For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him. The one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life.” — John 3:16, 17, 36
The Full Cost
However, it does not stop there for while Jesus, no doubt, suffered a great deal, his Loving Father suffered unimaginably more so. Yes, Jesus’ ransom sacrifice came at a terrible personal cost to Jehovah God Himself. After all, He had to watch it all play out.
He had to look on as his beautiful and precious son was unjustly insulted, humiliated, beaten, tortured and then horrifically murdered. He looked on — and could do nothing at all.
Have any of you ever been forced to watch the brutal murder of your child? Can you even allow yourself to imagine such a nightmare?
For the very first time since the billions perhaps even trillions of years that his Son was by his side Jesus was now nowhere to be found. For three agonizing days His very first creation, His son, His very first Son, the only one He loved with all of His heart more than anyone in all of reality .. was dead.
Gone …
Only those of us who have kids can maybe, just maybe imagine what Jehovah God felt when he lost his Son and even then only imagine. But why did Jehovah God put Himself through all this grief and misery? Romans 5:8 answers -
“God recommends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Why did He do it? Because He loved us so very much.
Our Turn
How, then, can we possibly express to Jehovah God and Jesus our gratefulness for all they have done — and continue doing — for us? By loving them, obeying them and loving one another -
Jesus taught, “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’” — Matthew 22:37 (cf. Deuteronomy 6:5)
“This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.” — 1 John 5:3
Jesus also taught, “If anyone loves me, he will observe my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not observe my words. The word that you are hearing is not mine, but belongs to the Father who sent me.” — John 14:23, 24
“If you love me, you will observe my commandments. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. In turn, whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him.” — John 14:15, 21
“By this all will know that YOU are my disciples, if YOU have love among yourselves.” — John 13:35
“If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar.” -1 John 4:20
“By this we have come to know love, because that one surrendered his life to us, and we are under obligation to surrender our lives for our brothers.” — 1 John 3:16
Let it be our purpose in life, then, to love God and love Jesus the same way they love us. By so doing, we can look ahead to enjoying their tender love and care — for all of eternity.
