How could Christ willingly sacrifice himself for the sins of all those people ... billions of people ... he didn't know?
I couldn't do it ... and neither could you.*
So what made Jesus know the sacrifice was worth it?
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Christ was willing to die in our place because he did know us. Jesus knew that we were imperfect, sinful and unworthy ... and suffered crucifixion knowing we could never do anything to save ourselves or earn our own salvation ... much less anyone else's.
Christ knew us ... just as he knows our sinfulness ... yet his love was so perfect that he still willingly took the cross in our place.
Please don't miss this: knowing us so completely, better than we know ourselves ... Christ loved us. Regardless.
Christ saw something in us that we can't ... not one single exception ... that made every one of us special and worth saving. Not because of anything we've done or achieved, but so that we could live ... and have the abundant life, according to God's purpose, that he intended.
By turning away from our smug, conceited opinions of our ourselves ... to trust, know and love him.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
-Jeremiah 1:5
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Romans 5:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
- Ephesians 2:8-9
