Why Commemorate the Death of Jesus?

THE RANSOM-GOD'S GREATEST GIFT

Megan: There's  another detail in this verse that I would like to draw to your attention.

Shirley: What's that?

Megan: Notice that the verse says:  "The gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord."  Now, if Jesus is the one who suffered and died for us, giving up his life in our behalf, why does the verse speak of the ransom as "the gift God gives"? Why not,  "the gift Jesus gives"?

Shirley: Hmm, I don't know.

Megan: Well,m God created Adam and Eve,m and he was the one they sinned against when they disobeyed in the garden of Eden. He must have been deeply hurt when his first two human children rebelled against him. But Jehovah immediately stated a solution.  He purposed that one of his spirit creatures  come to the earth, live as a perfect human, and ultimately offer his life as a ransom sacrifice. So really, the entire provision of the ransom  was a gift from God. There's another way too in which the ransom was God's gift. Have you ever thought of what God mush have felt when Jesus was put to death? 

Shirley: No, I guess I haven't.

Megan: I see some toys here in the front yard. You must have children.

Shirley: Yes, I have two-a boy and a girl. 

Megan: As  a parent, stop and think about how Jesus' heavenly Father, Jehovah God, must have felt on the day that Jesus died. I mean, how did he feel watching from heaven as his dear Son was arrested, ridiculed, and struck with fists? And how did the Father feel as his Son was nailed to a wooden stake and left there to die a slow, agonizing death,

Shirley: He must have felt terrible. I never thought of that before? 

Megan: Of course, it's impossible for us to say exactly how God felt on that day. But we do know that he has feelings, and we also know why he allowed all of that to happen. Its explained beautifully for us in a famous scripture, John 3:16. Would you please read that?

Shirley: Yes. It says: "For God so loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

Megan: Thank you. Look again at the beginning of that verse. It says:  "God so loved the world."  That's the key-love. Love moved God to sen his Son to earth to die in our behalf. Really, the ransom sacrifice is the greatest expression of love ever. And that's what Jehovah's Witnesses gathered to remember each year on the anniversary of the death of Jesus. Has this review been helpful? 

Shirley: Yes, it has. Thank you for taking the time to go over this with me.  

Next time: IS THE BIBLE RELEVANT TODAY? 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015