From the Beginning, Jesus’ Death Was No Surprise
In this series, “Grieve to the Gospel”—we invite you to share with us together in the truths of the good news of Christ. We can tune our grief to the notes and tones we hear in it. We will still certainly grieve, but welcoming the gospel into our minds, hearts, and experience will help us to understand what the Bible means when it communicates that there is a uniquely Christian way to grieve (1 Thess. 4:13).
Death laying over those we love is not a welcomed sight; I despised the way it looked on my daughter; the motionless, lifeless character it took within my body; and the limpness it caused in my arms that held her empty frame after being born sleeping.
With those memories, I also consider that before God began the act of creating the cosmos, the earth, and mankind, He knew that in doing so He would also be coming to die.
God’s Decree For Himself to Die
That Jesus would come to this earth as a sacrifice was decreed by God before the foundations of the earth. Jesus opted to meet our need and planned to become incarnate to sacrifice His life.
“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.”
1 Peter 1:20
“…this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Acts 2:23
The incarnation of Jesus to seek and save the lost was voluntary; from the beginning, the cross was no surprise to God.
In Scripture, we can see that this decree of God before creation was for His glory and to display His character. Colossians 1:16 tells us that all things were created “for Him.” Matthew Henry comments: “All things being created by Him, were created for Him; being made by His power, they were made according to His pleasure, and for His praise and glory.”
“Whatever He does or permits to be done, is done or permitted for the more perfect revelation of His nature and perfections.”
Charles Hodge
All of creation is for Him—His ultimate purpose in creating and becoming incarnate is for Him (Eph. 1:6). He is God—to be praised and enjoyed by all of His creation. You and I are for Him. Our babies are for Him. Our lives and days are for Him.
Were everything right with the world, we would breathe every moment for Him. And that would be good.
Humbled for Us
Yet I, sorrowfully, cannot say that I have lived every moment of my life for the glory and exaltation of God; Scripture says that no person can (Rom. 3:11-12; 1 John 1:8).
As people, we might set ourselves up to be like God by believing we don’t need Him very much, to be on par with God by determining for ourselves what is the right path for our lives, or to be owed a bit of the glory ourselves alongside of God—or owed at least what we consider a decent or fine life.
A heart for children is a wonderful thing; and our souls lay bare when wonderful desires go unmet. We have been handed something, by any standards, indescribably painful—to outlive our own child, to perhaps never really have met him or her, to maybe watch him or her suffer, to see him or her under the cloak of death. Our grace is that God desired that death not have the last word over the human race. And He had a plan; He’s always had a plan.
That’s why God, in creating this world, was Father who would send His Son to be born to die at the hand of men. He is a God who, because of the love with which He loved us (Eph. 2:4), decreed for Himself, as the divine Trinity, the death that brings us this sorrow, and worse. And He has glorified Himself by making His character known through His sacrificial Son (Eph. 1:5-6; Heb. 1:3).
There is a divine Baby who had death written all over Him before He was conceived, born, and lived through His first birthday. He humbled Himself (Phil. 2:8)—this One to whom all glory is due forever.
So when I look, in my memory, to my lifeless daughter, I also recall the God of all glory who gave up the splendor of heaven to come—not because He owed it to me, a seeker of self-glory. I have always owed Him all. How blessed are we, when thinking of our babies gone from earth so soon, to also think of the One hanging on the cross so that He could have authority to forgive sins and eternally pardon seekers of self-glory so that we could be with Him always.
He Endured the Most Difficult
His eternal decree meant that He did the most difficult on the cross (Matt. 26:36-46); He can be trusted with the lives of our children. He can be trusted to work out their days, or lack of any days at all out of the womb, for His glory. Free your life to His plans, purposes, and power.
If your theology, your view of God, starts with the good that you expected from Him only to receive this heartache—you haven’t yet seen the fullness of who He is, or His goodness available to you. There is more—look deeper. Marvelously widen your view to the start of creation—His gracious creation of all things for His glory and His astounding creation of all things while knowing that He would die for mankind.
Living for the glory of the God whose character is on display in Jesus’ sacrificial incarnation is purpose; and knowing the Son who died for your sins is how you can come to fulfill your life’s purpose of ascribing glory to Him now and forever.
His purposes never fail; His humility is astounding; His love in sending His Son to earth to die is confounding and true; His worth is indescribable—and we derive tremendous purpose as people in Him.
Tuning Your Grief to Jesus’ Incarnation
Grieve to the notes and tones of the gospel:
- the good news that Christ left the brilliance of heaven and became incarnate as a man
- the knowledge that He chose death, and if you are a believer or become a believer in Him, He chose you
- the reality that nothing is outside of His grasp and all of His purposes will stand for His glory
- the hope that His glory is your life’s eternal purpose and He will work all of this together—even our babies’ deaths and probably especially our babies’ deaths—for His ultimate praise
Grieve to these themes by seeing your pain in view of His character, His plan before creation to send His Son to death—which you can appreciate more intimately now after becoming so closely acquainted with death yourself.
Cry many tears, because this hurts and He understands; and while you do, give Him all the glory for what He can do with our children’s lives, with us, with this world—gracing us through the all-worthy God who decreed He would die. For us. Giving the wonderful, eternal purpose of being all for Him. I hardly understand it, this God of glory and of humility; I scarcely can. But the mere hint I see makes me know that this God is worthy of my whole life, and He is impeccable and exquisite and glorious and more.
- Lianna
Hope Mom to Noelle
Lianna belongs to her Lord. She is wed to Tyler and mother of two girls, one who lives in heaven and one who lives on earth. You’ll find her serving with Hope Mommies as Content Director and contributing to Of Larks and Unlocking the Bible.
Are you a writer who would like to join the blog team? Learn more and apply here.
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