What a sacrifice!

John 10:17-18 "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

I noticed today when I read this for the umpteenth time that not only did Jesus say He had the authority to lay His life down for us, but He also had the authority to take it up again. I'm not sure what that means. I don't find commentary about it.

God gave Jesus free reign, just like we have. Jesus could obey or not. Jesus could come be our savior or not. He could have been a great teacher and walked away from the rest of what God requested. He could have taken Satan's bait after the wilderness 40-day fast. He could have paid Judas to not tell the Jewish authorities where to find Jesus away from the crowds. There were so many things that Jesus could have done, that He had power and authority to do. He chose to obey His father. He chose to suffer and die - physically die - some even speculate that He went to hell for a time paying the price of our, all of our, sins.

What does it mean that he was able to take up his life again? I wonder if that means He had the option of visiting the disciples after his resurrection. Perhaps He was still bound by some humanness before the ascension. It certainly meant He was still separated from God during that time because he wasn't in heaven and carried our sins. We can't know what God and Jesus did during the time after His death and before the empty tomb to make Jesus clean again so He could be with God.

Well it makes no difference to us. We can't fully understand what Jesus did for us. We just can't. It is outside our abilities to understand. We don't have complete knowledge of life in heaven. We don't have complete knowledge of the weight of our own sin, let alone the total weight of all sins for all humankind for all time. We just can't begin to fully comprehend what Jesus did for us. We only have an inkling and only some of us have that! (Look how much of the world has rejected Jesus!)

What we do know is that Jesus had the authority to lay down his life and take it up again. Jesus did that from his own free will. In his desire to obey God and save us, He died and rose again. and God loves Jesus because he obeyed freely and unreservedly. God loves us and we don't obey. How much does He love Jesus! I can't fathom it.

God, You know how little I comprehend. Thank you for revealing as much as I can understand and tolerate at any time. I can't fully appreciate Your sacrifice in Jesus or Jesus sacrifice for me in obedience to and love for You. I'm trying though. Open my eyes as You see fit for my understand to help me bring the glory and my grateful heart that You deserve. Amen.

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