He saw Him falling to the ground, groveling in the dust, sweating blood!

(John Flavel)  LISTEN to audio!  Download audio

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"For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life!" John 3:16

Let it be considered, to what the Father gave His only begotten Son:
  even to death, and that of the cross;
  to be made a curse for us;
  to be the scorn and contempt of vile men;
  to the most unparalleled sufferings that were ever inflicted or borne by any!

It melts our affections, it breaks our heart, to behold our children striving in the pangs of death. But the Lord beheld His Son struggling under such incomparable agonies. He saw Him falling to the ground, groveling in the dust, sweating blood-and amidst those agonies turning Himself to His Father, and with a heart-rending cry beseeching Him, "Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me!" Luke 22:42

To wrath, to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture; to the very torments of Hell was Christ delivered, and that by the hand of His own Father!

What kind of love is this, which made the Father of mercies deliver His only Son to such miseries for us!

In giving Christ to die for poor sinners, God gave the richest jewel in His cabinet!
This is a mercy of the greatest worth and most inestimable value.

Heaven itself is not so valuable and precious as Christ is! Ten thousand thousand worlds, as many worlds as angels can number-would not outweigh Christ's love, excellency and sweetness! O what a lovely One! What an excellent, beautiful, ravishing One-is Christ!

Put the beauty of ten thousand paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all flowers, all pleasing fragrances, all colors, all delicious tastes, all joys, all sweetnesses, all lovelinesses into one-O what a lovely and excellent thing would that be! And yet it would be less compared to that loveliest and dearest well-beloved Christ-than one drop of rain compared to all the seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths!

Now, for God to bestow this mercy of mercies, the most precious thing in Heaven or earth, upon poor sinners; and, as great, as lovely, as excellent as His Son was-what astonishing love is this!