HE GAVE HIMSELF TO SAVE US FROM HIMSELF
There is a truth so blazing, so terrible in its majesty, and yet so tender in its mercy, that only the gospel can contain it without shattering the human mind. It is this: God Himself gave Himself to save us from Himself. In these words the lightning of divine justice meets the healing rain of divine grace, and the soul that beholds it bows low in wonder.
For it is God against whom we have sinned, God whose holy law we have despised, God whose pure eyes cannot behold iniquity without judgment (Habakkuk 1:13). Our rebellion is not simply against a moral code, it is against the very character of the King we were created to adore. His holiness is not a soft glow, it is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), and His justice is not a suggestion, it is the unshakable throne on which He sits (Psalm 97:2).
Thus, before the gospel becomes sweet, it must become severe. You cannot understand the gentleness of John 3:16 until you have trembled before the thunder of Romans 1:18, where the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. A sentimental gospel saves no one. A domesticated God delivers no sinner. Before we run to the open arms of Christ, we must see that those arms were stretched wide upon the cross because divine wrath was real, righteous, and inescapable.
And here the miracle dawns: the God whose wrath we deserve is the God who provides the refuge we need. Justice demanded satisfaction, yet mercy desired salvation. Holiness would not yield, yet love would not abandon. So in the mystery of eternal grace, God conceived a salvation in which He Himself would bear the penalty His justice required, that He Himself might grant the pardon His love desired.
God gave His Son to save us from God. Not from a cruel deity, but from a holy one; not from a divine tantrum, but from divine truth. For the cup Christ drank in Gethsemane was not the hatred of men but the righteous wrath of the Father (Matthew 26:39). The Lamb who hung on Calvary did not merely suffer at the hands of sinners, He stood in the place of sinners, absorbing the judgment they deserved (Isaiah 53:5–6).
O marvel of marvels—the Judge became the Justifier (Romans 3:26), the Offended One became the Offering One, the God who must punish became the God who was punished. He did not send an angel, a prophet, or a mighty cherub. He came Himself. Love took the place where wrath should fall, mercy stepped into the path of judgment, and the heart of God rushed forward to shield the sinner from the hand of God. There is no gospel unless there is punishment for sin. Christ is all. You are loved by a holy God who made a holy way.
And so we read John 3:16 with new awe. God so loved the world that He gave—not merely something from Himself, but Himself. The Father gave the Son, the Son gave His life, the Spirit gives us new birth. The whole Godhead moves in holy harmony to redeem the ones who had rebelled.
The gospel is not God saving us from the devil, though He does that. It is not God saving us from hell, though He delivers from that too. It is God saving us from the righteous consequences of our sin before His blazing throne of holiness. It is God Himself stepping between the sinner and His own holy judgment, so that mercy may rejoice against judgment (James 2:13).
Here the heart quiets. Here the soul bows. Here the believer sings with trembling joy: “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).
For in the end we stand redeemed, cleansed, accepted, and beloved—not because God ignored His justice, but because God satisfied His justice with His own pierced hands.
God Himself gave Himself to save us from Himself.
And so we worship. And so we weep. And so we rest.
BDD
