John 10:17-18
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father. --
This is amazing! God the Father gave to Christ Jesus the authority to lay down His life as the Sacrifice. We do not have this authority, we don't have the right to take our own or others' lives, as we are created and made by Him and we belong to Him as His property. But Jesus is the Creator; and the Father and the Son and the Spirit decided in their Heavenly Council their whole Plan of the Ages, before anything was created. And part of this plan, the hinge, the lynch pin upon which all history hangs, is that the Son came to live among us, to be one of us, and to lay down His life as the Atoning Sacrifice, that not only covered over our sins temporarily, but paid in full the whole principle of our debt. And He also exercised His right to take up His life again after death; this no one has ever done before, because all who came before were creatures--He is the Creator.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
