When God created the world, it was perfect, and then it fell. Given the fact that He created us for eternal fellowship with Him, and this earth to be His to reign, it makes sense that we might see Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for sin as some sort of Plan B, the last resort of a God who intended something altogether different for His people.
Sometimes, I think we imagine God called for volunteers. This ain’t workin’. I need somebody perfect to carry their sins and take My wrath. Anybody? Sometimes, I wonder if we think that Jesus was a reaction to our sin, an, oops, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Now what? Oh, this’ll work. Sometimes, I know I imagine God’s plan to be a terrible one and wonder why He couldn’t have found some less messy way to purify His people.
Sometimes, I think we miss the point of Jesus.
Jesus was the only One in all of existence who could have died for us. This was His role from the beginning, before death, sin, or Satan himself existed. He planned for the cross before the cross was invented, and He took on our sin before the first bite was taken of that first piece of fruit. He planned to be tempted before the tempter was formed, and there was absolutely no other or more beautiful way to purify God’s people.
Jesus was not Plan B, a reaction to an unforeseen circumstance or even a reaction to one that was foreseen. This is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. This is the demonstration of a love of God that was so great, no other demonstration would come close to revealing the scope of it. This was Jesus at His most God, God at His most visible, His character on display, displayed in its best light. Nothing but this could have shown us God. Nothing but this could have been Jesus.