John 10:15 “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
This passage is amazing beyond expression! What great thing would move a loving Father to Sacrifice His only loving and perfectly obedient Son? What would move the Righteous, Holy, and Sovereign God to make such a magnificent Sacrifice for a people that are steeped in sin? The Lord explains that He did it “according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5). It is God’s “will” “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4) and, in the Perfect Judicial Mind of God, it required the Sacrifice of the best that He had, and that best is the absolutely perfect and sinless Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I often wonder, what kind of Love is it that would move the Holy God to make such a glorious Sacrifice for some wretched being like me! Yet, as amazing as it is, our Lord came into this world, to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21); and He did it, for He plainly declared, “that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39). Paul assured us that it is indeed so, telling us that it is our Lord “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (II Timothy 1:9). This wonderful truth is heralded in these blessed words, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me …” (John Newton)!