No Greater Love
John 15:9–17
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
It may not happen often, but sometimes one human being will voluntarily die for another; still, this gift never equals or even parallels Jesus’s sacrifice. We see this when we reflect on Jesus’s death.
First, when we begin to reflect on Jesus’s death, we recognize that his death was exceptional if only because Jesus did not have to die. That is not true of us. We are mortal. We must die. But Jesus was immortal and therefore did not have to die. He could have come into this world, performed a full and varied ministry, and then returned to heaven without ever having experienced death.
Second, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is exceptional in that he knew he would die. Again, this is not usually the case when a mere man or woman gives his or her life for another. Few who die in this way do so knowing in advance that they will die. Rather, it is usually the case that, although the act is a risk and death is possible, they nevertheless think they may escape death while yet saving their friend. People take calculated risks and sometimes die but they do not often die deliberately. Jesus by his own testimony deliberately went to the cross to die for our salvation.
There is another area of Christ’s exceptional love. The text says that we are Christ’s friends. But if we think of this closely and honestly, we must recognize that, when the Lord Jesus gave his life for us, strictly speaking we were not exactly his friends. When he died for us, or when in eternity past he determined to die for us, he did so while we were yet enemies or were foreseen to be enemies. It was “while we were still sinners, [that] Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
There is one more reason why the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his friends, seen in his death for us, is superior to all human loves. The death of the Lord was a spiritual death, whereas ours, if we are Christians, is only physical.
If we were to give our life for someone else, the death we would endure would be only physical. We cannot die spiritually in the place of another person. But that is precisely what Jesus Christ did. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul and spirit from God. This is the separation that Jesus endured for us. He died physically also. But the truly horrible aspect of his death was his separation from the Father when he was made sin for us and bore sin’s punishment.
Do you know him as the One who demonstrated his love and friendship for you by thus dying? Is he your friend in that sense?
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.