Conclusion of The Greatest Act Of Love

Nevertheless, the Father dispatched his Son to the earth to be born as a human baby. Doing so meant that for some decades, Jehovah had to forgo intimate association with his beloved Son in heaven. With intense interest, He watched from heaven as Jesus grew up to be a perfect man. At about 30 years of age, Jesus got baptized. We do not have to guess how Jehovah felt about him. The Father spoke personally from heaven: "This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved." (Matthew 3:17) Seeing that Jesus faithfully did all that had been prophesied, all that was asked of him, his Father must have been so pleased! -John 5:36; 17:4.

How, though, did Jehovah feel on Nisan 14, 33 C.E.? How did he feel as Jesus was betrayed and then arrested by a mob in the night? As Jesus was deserted by his friends and subjected him to a trial? As he was ridiculed, spat upon and struck with fists? As he was scourged, his back torn to ribbons? As he was nailed, hands and feet, to a wooden pole and left to hang there while people reviled him? How did the Father feel as his beloved Son cried out to him in the throes of agony? How did Jehovah feel as Jesus breathed his last, and for the first time since the dawn of all creation, His dear Son was not in existence?" -Matthew 26:14-16,46, 47, 56, 59, 67; 27:38,-44, 46; John 19:1.

Words fail us. Since Jehovah has feelings, the pain he suffered over the death of his Son is beyond the power of our words to express. What can be expressed is Jehovah's motive for having allowed it to happen. Why did the Father subject himself to such feelings? Jehovah reveals something wonderful to us at John 3:16 -a Bible verse so important that it has been called the Gospel in miniature. It says: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life." So Jehovah's motive amounted to this: love. Jehovah's gift -his sending his Son to suffer and die for us- was the greatest act of love ever. (Even though we never deserved it nor appreciated it!)

Next time: Divine Love Defined

Draw Close To Jehovah, 2002