Jesus’ Perspective on His own Death

These are Written
Believe
Should Not Perish
3:16
Never, Never
Life, Love, Light
Condemned by Choice
This and That
Seven Expressions of Love from the Cross
Why?
I know, I know!
What?
UGH!
Expedient
Gain Grace?
The Gift
The Hands of God
Immortality
COME UP HERE
Not by Works of Righteousness We have Done
Jesus’ Perspective on His own Death
I AM

Download or order the free booklet “The Gift” here: https://basictraining.org/the-gift/

Thanks to the American Bible Society “The Gospel of John” for the video scenes.

I want to remind us of the perspective that Jesus, our Savior, had concerning His own death. Because I think it helps us appreciate it a little bit more. His death was 1) Purposeful, 2) Voluntary, 3) Joyful, and 4) Glorious.

Well, first of all, His death was purposeful. He recognized that He was going to die. John 12:27 says, “What shall I say, Father, do not let this hour come upon me. But that is why I came.”

The purpose of his death was also voluntary. It was a voluntary or volitional outpouring of His love, and it showed full and true submission to God, the Father. Romans 5:8, “for God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In the garden, Jesus said three times to the Father, “not My will, but Your will be done.” In John 10:17-18 Jesus said, “The Father loves me because I’m willing to give up My life in order that I may receive it back again. No one takes My life away from Me. I give it up of My own free will. I have the right to give it up and I have the right to take it back.This is what my father has commanded me to do.”

His death was purposeful. His death was voluntary. His death was also joyful. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was fully aware of the pain and the suffering that He would face at the cross, but He had his eyes on the joy, and that joy was purchasing our eternal destiny.

And then finally, Jesus considered death as the path to glory. In John 12:23 He said those words, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to receive great glory.” And this is an amazing verse to me because this is shortly before the passion week. This is shortly before He would go through all of that suffering, the betrayal, the arrest, the scourging, the piercing of his hands and feet, the crown of thorns on his head, and the gathering up the sins of the world that pierced His heart. He didn’t say the time has come for the Son of Man to be tortured and tormented and suffer for the sins of the world. No, He said, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He ignored the suffering and kept his eyes on the glory. And if we can grasp the truth of that verse, it would totally change our perspective of the sufferings in our life.

So this is His perspective of His own death. He was born to die.

Gene Cunningham - July 2, 2022

3:16

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You know, for me it was I had a deep, deep conviction of being a sinner. I grew up in a Methodist church. We went to church every Sunday. I had all the pins, you know, for going a year without missing a Sunday. And I came away with only one understanding, but it was a good one because it was part of the building blocks that led me to faith, and that was "sinners go to hell." Of course, I thought good people go to heaven. Sinners go to hell. And I knew which I was. There was no question in my mind. The part I was wrong about was there aren't any good people who go to heaven. But still, that deep conviction lasted with me from the age of five to the age of fifteen. I was terrified of death. Whenever I heard of a person dying or a funeral, I was terrified because I knew one day I'm going to die. To give you an idea, I remember at the age of seven we went camping and my dad had built a bonfire and I stood looking at the bonfire at the sticks that were burning. And the thought that went through my mind was, I wish that I could have just been made a stick instead of a human because that stick is going to burn up, and it'll be over. But I'm going to burn forever in hell. I had very strong conviction of that. Well, that worked on me for ten years. In those ten years I just proved it more and more every year. No hope for me. I know where I'm going. And then finally a guy came to me and we met and shared with me John 3:16. And to be honest, I didn't understand it at all. But he said, "Memorize this verse." And I did. And I met up with him two or three weeks later and he said, "Did you memorize verse?" I said, "Yeah, I could quote it. John. John 3:16 "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." I went through it didn't mean anything to me. Well, he thought I had become a believer. I didn't understand what the verse meant.