No Greater Love

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Yesterday, we shared about the power of Jesus, but what is even more astounding about Jesus is His love for people. When the angry mob and guards came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest. Peter did this to defend Jesus, but Jesus reprimanded Peter and then healed the man’s ear. Then Jesus made a profound statement. He said, “Do you not think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) In Roman culture, twelve legions would have equated to 72,000 angels! In the book of Chronicles, just one angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Jesus was saying no man could take His life.

In John 10:18, Jesus says, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up.” It wasn’t the spikes that held Jesus to the cross; it was His love for the human race. He did what He did because He loved you. He laid down His life to pay the price for your sins.

Can you imagine the heaviness Jesus felt carrying all the weight of the world’s sins on His back? He bore every evil thing that mankind was capable of. He was made a sin for us. (1 Peter 2:24) Every sickness that has ever come upon the human body and all our griefs and sorrows were placed upon Him on the cross. 

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6

The most amazing thing about the life of Jesus was the way He chose to spend it. He had unlimited power and resources, yet He chose to humble Himself by allowing religious leaders to slander His name and send him to die a terrible death. He made that choice because of His great love for you. You will never experience a greater love.

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