As a father I am always challenged when my daughters get sick. As they grow they get all the “normal” colds and bugs that all the kids do, right?
Recently I was taking care of one of them and she was having a hard time sleeping; it was very difficult for her to breathe because of this “normal” cold. And I thought: “If I could, I would be sick in your place. I would not sleep so you could sleep. I would suffer so you would not have to go through this.”
Then I remembered that our Lord Jesus Christ did that for all of us! What I wish I could do, He did! He took upon Himself our suffering and pain, our diseases and infirmities. He already paid the price.
“This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said, ‘He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases.’” (Matthew 8:17, NLT) “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, NLT)
This experience was a revealing of the Father’s heart—how much he cares for us, just as a father cares for his sons and daughters, and more! That is how God loves us.
There is something, I think, that we need to appropriate in Salvation that is bigger than we realize. There is a provision of love that goes beyond what we can even comprehend. It is a love that we can’t understand, but that is what Salvation is for us: “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:19, NLT)