Reading: The Cross of Christ pg. 156-162
…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
John 17.21-24
Our substitute then, who took our place and died our death on the cross, was neither Christ alone (since that would make him a third party thrust in between God and us) nor God alone (since that would undermine the historical incarnation), but God in Christ who was truly and fully both God and man and who on that account was uniquely qualified to represent both God and man and to mediate between them. If we speak only of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the initiative of the Father. If we speak only of God suffering and dying, we overlook the mediation of the Son. The New Testament authors never attribute the atonement either to Christ in such a way as to disassociate him from the Father, or to God in such a way as to dispense with Christ, but rather to God and Christ, or to God acting in and through Christ with his whole-hearted concurrence. | Stott
If Jesus was not only willing to die for us, but it was also necessary that He die for us, what does that say about the efforts of someone who is doing their best to get to heaven?
Father, we thank you that you are a God willing to give of yourself. Thank you that even though the cost to pay our penalties was infinite, your love was just as big. In the perfect life of Jesus, we see not only how to live, but how you save us from our own sin. May we live gratefully. Amen