Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings on a nice-looking morning, dear ones.

As soon as I send this, I’ll run back to the house, about 60 yards away, and prepare to do another walk/jog with Becki and the dogs. Following that is just a big daunting bunch of work.

May your day be blessed.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Was? Think about it. Was the Son of God? Come on, guys—use your noodle further—you’ve done well at finally connecting some obvious dots, but don’t stop short of the next obvious dot of truth—that if He WAS the Son of God, He still IS the Son of God—because, at least in my convinced Biblical view, God doesn’t really die!—He can’t die! The Author of life dying in the complete and final sense of the word is absolutely absurd! It’s a pretty puny view of God that views God as being so puny as to be governed by “Oops!”—being made vulnerable to death against His Will. No way! Jesus, most definitely, was NOT a victim! And to insist that He was a victim is to render Him very puny indeed. In my own judgment, anyone insisting that Jesus was a victim actually becomes a victim of something worse—a willing victim of the BIG LIE! His life was not TAKEN—His life was GIVEN. “…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”(Matthew 20:28).

There is simply no other explanation that I have ever heard, or that I can conceive, for anyone allowing himself to be subjected to this volume of persecution, misrepresentation, torture, and death when He could have avoided it. If Jesus was NOT Who He claimed to be, and Who the Bible describes Him to be, He had to be, at best, a LUNATIC OF THE HIGHEST ORDER! The only reasonable explanation that makes any sense to me is that He was indeed the marvelous demonstration and prophetic fulfillment of THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD (John 1:29).

If this is true, is it any wonder that John 3:16 would become such a concise and common core of the Biblical Gospel? Even a lot of unregenerate unbelievers that I meet can quote it. And there is a danger of it becoming so familiar among believers that its impact wanes. Be reminded of its Authorship. It wasn’t composed by some creative writer. It was spoken by Jesus Himself and recorded by His press secretary—John. Let’s take a moment to review and hang on each word. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (KJV). And everyone said, WOW!—AWESOME!