Have you ever pondered this question? Has it ever crossed your mind, “What kind of God would kill His own son?”
“Kind” for us is “clear” as Brené Brown points out in her book, Dare to Lead. Because the facts surrounding Jesus’ death are “unclear” for a lot of people, it appears to be “unkind”.
Even church going, professed “Christians” struggle with the fact that God allowed His Only Begotten Son to be put to death on a cross. They reason, God is not kind or loving IF He did that! They further conclude, I don’t want that kind of God running my life. He seems to be a Tyrant. It seems as though he cannot be pleased, if He murdered His own son. I feel uncomfortable when Jesus dying on the cross comes up, but I like going to church. I think going to church is the right thing to do. I call myself a Christian, but I don’t believe God is really all that kind because He made his own Son die such an excruciatingly painful death. I think I’ll go to Heaven when I die because I am kind and never do anything horrific like killing my own son.
It is my intention to be very clear and kind. The fact that God killed His own Son on the cross is true. The pleasure God received from killing His own son, was exponential. Let’s review some Bible passages which helps us be clear. In Isaiah 53 we read “It pleased God to crush Him”. God did get pleasure from allowing Jesus to die on the cross. Verse 12 tells us the reason it pleased God. It pleased Him because God would be able to portion to Jesus even more than before He died. There was a larger return on having Jesus die on the cross than if Jesus had never died.
We see this verse in Isaiah spoken in the New Testament when it says what God did because Jesus was obedient unto death. Philippians 2:9-11 tells us, because of Jesus’ obedience to please God to the point of death, Jesus received the portion God had for Him. What was the portion God gave Him? “God has highly exalted him (lifted him up) and bestowed (crowned) on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus received a “lift up” to the highest seat of honor, dominion, power, rule because it pleased God to allow Him to be killed on the cross.
The question we began with is, “If it pleased God to kill His own son, what will He do to me?” The answer lies in not the validity of the question. The answer consists in the relationship we have with God. Jesus was God’s Son who “learned obedience through the things he suffered”. He learned in the difficult things to obey God. He grew in standing with God and man. He said on one occasion, what kept him going and filled him up was carrying out the will (plan, pleasure, purpose) of God and getting it completed. (John 4:34).
What God will do with you depends on what you do with God. If you treat God with the same “learned obedience” and “growing relationship” as Jesus – then God will give you a portion with the inheritance He has planned for His children. However, if you fail to “obey” and choose “no relationship”, then you will NOT have the portion like He gave His Son.
The “likeness” you have to Jesus determines the “result” you get from God. The fact is you’ll reap what you sow. From Jesus’ own lips we hear this – “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” John 12:24.
Jesus knew that unless He was killed on the cross, He could not inherit the portion God would give to Him. We must “liken” ourselves with the same knowledge Jesus had about God to get the same thing coming to us from God that Jesus received. We must know we’ll get lifting up and a name that is out of this world if we follow Jesus.
If we act like a Son of God like Jesus did, then we will get the same thing that Jesus got . . . an eternal portion of life.
If we do not act like a Son, then we will get an eternal portion of death.
Do not be confused about the death of Jesus. Do not be hardened to God and his kindness because of your own reasoning/thinking. As the scripture says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galations 6:7-8
We learn the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The more you bury the Word of God in heart, the more clearly you will see the kindness of God. It is the kindness of God that will lead you to repentance (change your mind). Your question will not stop at the death of Jesus — but instead the question will say, if God so exalted Jesus, what will He give to me when I have the “likeness” of His own son?
Take time today to sow some of God’s Word in your mind, cultivate it so that it takes root and grows up to eternal life. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32
Make sure you are clear on all the facts and do not continue to think God is not kind.
Written By: Anne Gurley
