At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ. On Resurrection Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The one event requires the other, yet both required God’s giving His Son. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son….” When God gave His Son to be born, He also gave His Son to die. What a gift! What love!
The Father prepared a body for His Son, who knew why He was coming into the world: to live a sinless life, to die on the cross, and to rise from the grave. All the while Jesus walked on the earth, He knew the agony and the separation He would face at the crucifixion. He knew that He would bare in His own body on the cross the sins of the world. This is the same world that God loved—the world that sinned against Him and would crucify His Son. Yet God still gave!
Why would God do this? “…that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Because Christ died for the whole world, anyone who believes on Him will never perish in hell, but instead will have everlasting life, guaranteed. God wants to save sinners, and He also loves sinners. The one requires the other, yet both require God’s giving His Son. Because God gave His Son, to die on the cross and to rise from the dead, we can be saved—if we place our faith in Him.