The Great Cost of His Death

For two years we lived in O’Fallon, Missouri, while my husband Daniel served with the Public Health Service in St. Louis. On Sundays we drove the 30 miles to Troy, Missouri, to attend church with my mother and then go to her home for dinner. She always had a delicious meal prepared.

One Saturday we showed up at her house unannounced. We found Mother hard at work. Countertops were filled with dishes, the mixer was out, and pies and barbecued ribs were in beginning stages. Suddenly the cost to her of those dinners became apparent. What she so gladly and freely shared with us on Sunday cost her a day of work on Saturday. Never did we hear a murmur of complaint though. I like to think that she was so happy to have us share those Sundays with her that she never thought of complaining.

One of the beauties of God’s grace is how completely He hides from our view the awful price He paid to forgive us for our sins. He never alluded to the cost to Himself.

Think of what it must have meant to God the Father to allow His Son to step out of the glories of Heaven and enter into the form of a dependent infant. He was sending His son to be ignored, hated, and nailed to a cross. Perhaps worse of all, He knew that one day He would have to turn His back on His Son when Jesus hung on the cross. How would most human fathers have felt the day their son left on such a mission?

How could God let Him leave Heaven knowing what His Son would endure? But even more, how could He do that and celebrate with an extravaganza of joy? Surely the angels were expressing the mood of God when they sang with great exultation: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Lk. 2:10).

Thank You, Father, for being so exuberant about securing my fellowship.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).