A Gift or a Loan?

Did you ever give a gift to someone and expect to get it back? Of course not. That would be merely a loan. When you give a birthday or Christmas gift you give it for keeps.

Did you ever think about John 3:16 in this way? Does it read "God so loved the world, that he loaned his only begotten Son"? No. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." When He gave that gift did it mean any­thing to Him? It was a permanent gift be­cause He gave Him. Every time we read that verse we should see something new in it. I used to wonder about the angels sing­ing over and over again, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Don't they ever get tired of singing the same words over and over again? They never weary of it because they sing it each time as a result of a new revelation. In the earth made new we too will study God's gift throughout eternity, and each new revelation will call forth a new meaning to the song.

Sin caused a separation between Father and Son that we cannot fully realize. Sin always causes separation and leaves sorrow and suffering. But what a separation it must have been when God made "him to be sin for us, who knew no sin"! We grasp so little of this tremendous event, and will never fully realize it, even to eternity.

But as we meditate on it we can obtain further glimpses of the meaning of the cross. What must have been the anguish of the moment when Jesus hung on the cross as a sinner, and died as a sinner, the gift of God to humanity, never to be taken back from us! Such a gift had never been given before. And it was indeed a gift, not merely a loan.

What must it have meant when God the Father must take the life of His own Son! "What?" you say. "Didn't the Romans slay Him? or the Jews?" Yes, both intended to do it, but they didn't. He died not from the wounds, since normally that would have required three or four days and for this reason they broke the legs of those crucified when they were taken down from the cross. The soldiers were surprised to find Jesus dead already. Now what evidence do we have that God the Father must do it? First of all we have the analogy of Abraham and Isaac. Jesus Himself said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). Here He must have reference to the experience of Abraham offering up Isaac. For just after quoting this verse Ellen G. White says, "It was to impress Abraham's mind with the reality of the gospel, as well as to test his faith, that God commanded him to slay his son." And in the previous paragraph she says, "Through type and promise, God 'preached before the gospel unto Abra­ham.' "—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 154.

We are told further that "Isaac was a figure of the Son of God, who was offered a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God would impress upon Abraham the gospel of salvation to man. . . . He was made to un­derstand in his own experience how unut­terable was the self-denial of the infinite God in giving His own Son to die to rescue man from utter ruin."—Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 369. (Italics supplied.) If Isaac was a "figure of the Son of God" and Abraham was to understand "in his own experience" the self-denial of God, then Abraham must have been a figure of God the Father. Abra­ham was not asked to turn Isaac over to someone else to slay him. He was to slay his son himself and thus present the type of the sacrifice of Christ and the self-denial of God. Patriarchs and Prophets, page 154, further says, "The angels who witnessed the humiliation and soul-anguish of the Son of God were not permitted to inter­pose, as in the case of Isaac." Yes, as the prophet said, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him" (Isa. 53:10).

Second, we have the analogy of the final death of the sinner. The first death is only a sleep, the result of sin. But "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). After quoting this verse and Deuteronomy 30:15 Ellen G. White says: "The death referred to in these scriptures is not that pronounced upon Adam, for all mankind suffer the penalty of his transgression. It is the 'second death' that is placed in contrast with everlasting life."—The Great Controversy, p. 544.

"He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew so sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). "Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God."—The Desire of Ages, p. 753.

Since He died for us, then it must have been the experience of the second death that He passed through, for we all, saint and sinner, except the few who will be translated, must die the first death. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). The wicked are slain by His presence (2 Thess. 1:7-9). "And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them" (Rev. 20:9) at the end of the thousand years. It is the consuming presence of God in His wrath against sin that slays the wicked and brings the anguish of soul so great that physical pain is hardly felt. It was this experience that Jesus passed through for us. Jesus took the sinner's place and thus incurred the wrath of God against Himself as our sin bearer.

We can only get a little understanding of the scene as we read the story of Abra­ham and Isaac. Abraham was asked to take his son Isaac and go to Mount Moriah, the future site of the Temple, and offer him. What a struggle Abraham must have had! He didn't even tell Sarah, his wife. Perhaps he just left a note that he and Isaac had gone to sacrifice. For three days and nights he bore this burden alone. At last as they approached the mount he had to inform Isaac. Isaac could have run away, for he was only about twenty years old and his father was more than one hundred. But he under­stood and trusted his father. He, too, was willing. At last the hour had come. Isaac was bound. And now, as any father would, Abraham hesitated: "How can I slay my beloved son?" However, obedience to God was greater than love for his son. Then, too, Isaac encouraged him as Abraham hes­itated and turned away (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 152). At last, with complete trust in God he raises the knife to plunge it into his son. But God spared him the awful act. He had now demonstrated his faith and given an example to the world of what God the Father must do.

But God the Father could not be spared the ordeal. Jesus was not only the Son but also the Lamb. See Him on the cross. As a sinner the Father must take His life. He was to die as a substitute for sinners, to die as a sinner and not as a saint. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29, see Isa. 33: 14). Sense the anguish of the Father. Like Abraham, He turns away and darkness falls upon the earth from noon until three o'clock. "In that thick darkness God's pres­ence was hidden. He makes darkness His pavilion, and conceals His glory from hu­man eyes. . . . Had His glory flashed forth from the cloud, every human beholder would have been destroyed. And in that dreadful hour Christ was not to be com­forted with the Father's presence. He trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with Him."—The Desire of Ages, pp. 753, 754. These were the three hours of supreme conflict.

God loved His Son and He loved us. Which should it be? The Son cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). The task must be done. "I will that they . . . be with me" (John 17:24). Their love for us wins. The Father returns and the Son is slain. Sin and God cannot exist together. For that reason the veil was drawn between us and God when Adam sinned, lest we die. Now the veil in the Temple was rent from top to bottom, "that is to say, his flesh" (Heb. 10:20). The Father had slain His own Son because "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). He gave Him "to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken, . . . forever to retain His human nature."—Ibid., p. 25.