Matthew Sucky here, and I wanted to answer this quick question in this video of why God the Father did not sacrifice himself.
Why did God the Father not sacrifice or die himself?
And this is a common question you'll have people ask that believe in the oneness doctrine.
And what the oneness doctrine is is a complete rejection of the Trinity.
They believe that God is one, but not that there's three persons in God, but that there is just one.
Well, what the Bible teaches is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost have eternally existed and always will.
So God is one, and yet he's also three persons.
And it is, of course, a mind-twister, but this is what the Bible teaches.
And what they'll often ask who believe in this oneness doctrine, because they believe that God the Father and God the Son are the same.
And so they'll say, well, you know, why didn't God the Father sacrifice himself?
You know, why did he send his son to die if he really loved and cared?
That shows that he doesn't really love.
Well, let me give you a couple verses on this.
And in 1 John 3, verse 16, the Bible reads,
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.
And the Bible says we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us.
Now that's, of course, a reference to God the Son, Jesus Christ, dying and paying for the sins of the world.
I love that verse because it's easy to remember.
1 John 3, 16.
And it proves that Jesus Christ is God.
Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us.
Of course, we understand that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.
He was perfect. He was sinless.
He was God.
And so the Bible says that he laid down his life for us.
And then there's another verse to cross reference where it says in John 15, verse 13,
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
And so the greatest love you could show for your friends is that you would be willing to lay down your life, the Bible says.
And Jesus Christ spoke that before he had actually died in John chapter 15.
But he was talking about, symbolically speaking, even though he literally died and paid for the sins of the world,
he at the same time is telling us that we can lay down our lives where we basically put other people before ourselves
and we minister unto other people and don't care about ourselves, but we care about others.
And he says, you know, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Now this is something that I always kind of understood, you know, after I got saved, you know,
understanding if you would be willing to die for someone because, you know, everybody loves their own flesh,
as the Bible says in Ephesians 5. You know, we care about our lives. You know, we wouldn't want to just lose our lives.
You know, of course, I want to live a long life and there's many things I want to accomplish in my life.
And I greatly value my life and I would never want to die.
And if somebody was willing to die for you, that shows how much love they actually have for you.
But, you know, there's kind of a change that took place, you know, after I was married and my son was born,
where, you know, I understood, you know, just how much I actually cared about my son.
Of course, before you have kids, you realize you're going to love your kids.
But there's something that's really unexplainable, that when your child is born,
how you have this love and emotional attachment to this child.
And see, Oneness Pentecostals will often quote John 3.16 to try to show an error in the belief in the Trinity.
But what it says in John 3.16 is this,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
So the Bible says God so loved the world, in reference to God the Father,
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
And the Bible is saying that God the Father showed His love for us in the fact that He sent His Son.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
And what John 3.16 is expressing is how much God loves the world.
How much He loves me, how much He loves you.
The proof of how much He loved the world is the fact that He would send His Son to die and pay for the sins of the world.
And see, Oneness Pentecostals will sit here and say,
Why didn't He just die Himself?
You know, if He really loved, why would He send His Son?
But see, the point of that verse is showing how much God loves the world.
And here's the thing.
It would not be a hard choice for me to make a decision.
Would I rather that I myself die or my son dies?
Of course, I would rather that I died.
I love my son and you know what, I value his life more than mine.
It's not even a tough choice.
I would easily just say take my life so my son can live.
And what that verse is expressing is how much God loves the world.
And the proof of it is the fact that He was willing to send His Son to be the Savior of the world.
There is no greater love that a father could show in the fact that he would be willing to lay down his son's life.
Abraham and Isaac is a great example of that.
Where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Now of course this is not something God would ever ask us to do.
But it is something that's meant to be a picture of God the Father sending God the Son to be the Savior of the world.
And if you stop and read that chapter and you look at those verses.
And you try to put yourself in that position as the father that would be willing to sacrifice your son.
I always think to myself there's no way I would ever do that.
Because I love my son too much.
And you know that's what Abraham was willing to do.
And of course you know the end of that story.
But God the Father He showed His love for us in the fact that He was willing to send His Son to be the Savior of the world.
And you know what that shows that He loves us more than if He were willing to sacrifice Himself.
Because even more painful as a father would be to be willing to sacrifice your own child.
Now I want you to understand.
If someone doesn't understand how much love it is to send your son to be the Savior of the world.
There's one of two things.
Either one you know they don't have any children.
So they don't fully comprehend that yet.
The other thing is if they're just like a total reprobate and they have no conscience whatsoever.
And they don't even care about their own kids but they only care about themselves.
Because reprobates only care about themselves.
They don't care about anybody else.
Any normal person who has a child would understand how painful it would be to be willing to sacrifice your own child.
Anyone would say man I would much rather just sacrifice myself.
I would never want to give my child's life because I love my child too much.
But you know what that is how much God the Father loves you and He loves me and He loves the world.
And He loves everyone in this world.
The fact that He was willing to send His son to be the Savior of the world.
And look that is the greatest expression of love a father could show.
You know for the world is the fact that he'd be willing to send his son to be the Savior of the world.
Because that would be the most painful thing to him.
So as a single person the greatest sacrifice you could make is be willing to sacrifice your own life.
However if you are a father the greatest love you could show is be willing to sacrifice your child's life.
Because of the fact unless you're a total reprobate with no conscience it would be a lot more painful to sacrifice the life of your child.
You would much rather just die yourself.
Anyways thank you and God bless.