To What Measure?

Nothing brings more validity to the cross than Jesus’ prayer at Gethsemane, as stated in Matthew 26:39. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Here we see the humanity of Jesus to the fullest. Jesus comes to the Father vulnerable, uncertain, and possibly afraid. All emotions that we, as humans, experience all the time, yet not emotions we would expect God in the flesh to show, unless He was, in fact, fully human.

His mission seemed simple on paper, but impossible in action. Take on the flesh, live a perfect and sinless life, sacrifice that life in the flesh, ascend up to heaven, and become the gateway for all mankind to heaven.

You might think that there should be no doubt that Jesus would live a perfect life, after all, He was God in the flesh. And yet, if Jesus had simply used his Godly powers to overcome all temptation that we, as humans, face everyday, all the power is gone from the mission. If Jesus had used Godly powers to live perfectly, then how could He have been the perfect sacrifice to bury all of our wrongdoings? Unless He was a human, by all accounts, He could not represent mankind as the savior of them. Jesus lived as a human and did not call upon Godly powers from above to bail him out of situations that seemed too difficult to overcome. This is why we see the humanity of Jesus in the Gospels. Without it, Jesus is just some superhuman whom we can never aspire to be like and that we cannot lean on for our own salvation.

Was Jesus truly and sincerely afraid of the things to come while praying to God at Gethsemane? You bet He was! Yet when we look at Jesus, in all his humanity, we have to admire him for his acceptance of God’s plan, spoken with power, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Would someone, living a perfect life, be willing to have their record tarnished by people who live by their own agenda and do not care one bit for others? Jesus would. Not only was the line, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will,” Jesus’ death sentence, it was also the greatest demonstration of love anyone could ever show.

The mission, the plan, was brilliant, but by no means was it foolproof. As Jesus was human, He had the power to choose to say no, just as we have the power to choose to accept or reject God’s will for us. He could have chosen to continue to live his perfect life, and God knew it. God risked looking like a fool. God risked his own perfection with this plan. Would God take that risk, so that his creation could live with him in eternity? You bet! God risked it all, Jesus gave it all, and now we stand here and have it all.

You might ask if God could have attained salvation for all humanity in some other way. He is God, he could have chosen to do it in any number of ways. If he could have done it any number of ways, why did he choose this one? The problem that God faced (I use the word “problem” loosely, for God is not bound by earthly dilemmas. Unfortunately I am bound by the English language), was not one of his own powers and abilities, but one of human capacity. God had to present salvation in a way that we could understand it. Unless we were able to see Jesus as God in the flesh, and witness his crucifixion, we would not believe and accept this as the salvation plan. God’s plan was perfect, not because it was the best of all other possibilities, but because it was the only way that we would be able to see the process and believe. Does God stoop from his place on high to look down upon us? Not only does he stoop, he would do back flips for us if it would help us attain a place in his house for eternity! If you have any doubt whatsoever that God loves and cares for you, take a look at the salvation story. He has proven his love, over and over again.