LORD JESUS GAVE HIMSELF
Passage of Reference: Gal 1:4 who gave himself for our sins
Apostle Paul in the very introduction of his epistle to the Galatians draws an important point with the above few words. The epistle of Galatians is written to believers who were ‘active’ in ‘doing’ things for God. This went too far that they even kept the law of Moses which Christ made obsolete when He died to it. Eventually, these believers started to look at what they have done and not what Christ did, to ratify their salvation.
God made no provision for flesh in Salvation. All boasting is excluded. Paul in this epistle had to graciously remind his readers that the phase of Man ‘doing’ and ‘giving’ things to God is over. The old testament marked by weak, erroneous, insufficient, imperfect efforts that man could give to God is of no avail. The old was all about what man could give to God; what he could give in exchange for his dying, dammed, & disdainful soul. Though the law did make provision for man to give, nothing what man could give including the blood of countless offerings was good enough.
And this is just when light shinned through. When man is at the end of the law, grace takes over. When man could not give anything for his redemption, how wonderful that GOD GAVE! It was God who should have demanded anything from us, but He gave everything required for our salvation. And Paul in these few words illuminates this wonderful grace that Lord Jesus GAVE Himself.
Yes Lord Jesus gave Himself. That’s quite a powerful statement. Because this was only the beginning of all ‘givings’. Because with Him, God has given us freely all things. Out of all the gifts that God has given, He is the indescribable gift. The gift of gifts, all other gifts in one. And all of this giving was under the backdrop of the law which demanded man to give. Just like God always does, He himself fulfilled what man couldn’t.
God had envisaged the incapable, sinful nature of man to give anything in return to God. For when God decided to give, He gave even before the world began. And Isaiah the prophet wrote in this way “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is GIVEN”.
The Lord himself tried to explain this to Nicodemus. Nicodemus understood the Lord as a “teacher come from God”. But the Lord said something more profound, “For God so loved the world, that He GAVE his only begotten Son.” With these words, The Lord drew strong lines differentiating Himself from all the prophets of the old. The prophets and teachers were all sent of God or come of God. But that’s a whole lot different when God GAVE the very delight of His heart- His one and only Son. Words would fail to describe what it was for the Father to give His beloved.
The majesty of this grace shines even brighter with the next words Paul had to say – “Who gave Himself FOR OUR SINS.” For when Christ sacrificed Himself, when he held back nothing and even sacrificed his unapproachable glory; it wasn’t for something more precious than He himself is, not even at least for the preciousness of gold or silver; but it was for the very same obnoxious and abominable sins of His eyes. Yes, his Everything for our Sins!!!
We can’t possibly understand how the Lord of Glory and our shameful sins should be brought to the same pedestal? How the Father should even turn down the agonizing cry of His Son for a sinner? For “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Its an exchange quite un-comprehendible : JESUS for our SINS. Stark but yet true.
Mat 20:28 -The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to GIVE his life as a ransom for many.”
