Through Eyes Like Fire

This conversation between Father and Son wasn't going so well as far as the Son was concerned. He could hear His Father’s words echo through His mind, “No not one.” As He looked out over the expanse of time He replayed that last piece of the conversation. He had asked if His Father would have to destroy them all if just fifty righteous could be found. The answer given was no, if fifty could be found He would spare them all.

“But what if just forty could be found,” He asked. “No for the sake of the forty I will spare them all,” was His Father’s reply. “But none are righteous, no not one,” His Father went on to say.  “It grieves me that this is the way it has become, they all have turned away, not one does good. They are my creation and I love them dearly, but I am Holy and Just and must judge them according to their works.”

“Yes Father I know. You are Holy, Holy, Holy, and justice must be done, but I love them so.”

“I know that this hurts you my beloved, just as it does me. It pains me to my innermost being, but it must be done nonetheless.”

Through eyes like fire the Son scans through the ages. He sees those He loves with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength, and His heart is broken. “How has it come to this,” He wonders to Himself. “All the evidence of creation was placed before them and a longing for eternity was instilled in their heart, and yet they go their own way. How could it be that none do good?”

With one last attempt the Son looks at His Father with eyes full of compassion and says, “What if I go?”

The Father with a gleam in His eyes looks back and says, “Are you willing?”

“I am Father, but not my will but yours be done. Send me if you will.”

“As a man you will know full well what their existence is like. You will know hunger and pain, fatigue and despair, abandonment and betrayal. Those are the ways of man.”

“Yes Father I know and I am still willing. You said if just one could be found you would not destroy them all. Allow some, as many as who are willing to come to me and know me to be mine.”

“But Son I must still judge justly. For any to be saved you must take their place. You will have to taste death, and not just any death, but the death of the cross. You must die on a tree and become the curse so they can be set freed from it. Are you certain you are willing?”

“Yes I am. If it is your will, and if it will make you pleased, then punish me instead. If their debt could be paid by my death, then yes Father I will take their place.”

The Father looks at His Son with joy in His eyes. He knows what this means. He knows He will have to release the full burden of His wrath on His own Son for a race of people that will despise Him. But for the sake of the few who would believe, for the sake of those who would turn back to Him, He was willing.

“My Son in whom I am well pleased, you know that while you hang on that tree you and I will be separated. As you hold the weight of all their sin on your shoulders I will unleash the full measure of my anger. You will not know my presence at that moment. Are you still willing?”

Separation was something the Son has never known as He has always been with the Father. He looks again through the ages and sees those who He would come to know as friends. His live for them knows no bounds and He tells His Father, “Yes I am. I am still willing. I am willing to do whatever it takes.”

“Then so be it says the Father. Amen. Go my Son; I love you with an everlasting love.”

“Yes Father, let your will be done.”