YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

Dan was a thinker. Many thought of him as an egghead. He observed people and drew his own conclusions from his observations. It seemed to Dan that those who loved other people had strenuous demands put on them. These demands required sacrifice and self-denial. Not only that, he observed, love produced jealousy, arguments and sorrow. From these observations, Dan concluded that love costs too much. He didn’t want his life encumbered with the sacrifices love requires.

Dan noticed that people strive for success. And success, he perceived, was followed by many disappointments and often failure. Ambitious people become greedy and petty. “Why mess up my life trying to succeed,” he thought? This was simply more than Dan was willing to strive for.

Dan’s analysis didn’t stop there. When he considered charitable acts, such as giving to the poor and helping the needy, he found that these too had their problems. This world had just too many ungrateful receivers. Sometimes, they even turned on those generous people who gave to them. This wasn’t for Dan either. “Why not just play it safe and keep everything I have,” he thought.

God had a decision to make. Should He take some risks or play it safe as Dan did? The One who became Jesus Christ shared all the glory in the universe with Him. Your mind simply can’t comprehend how great things were for Him before this earth was ever created. He had far more than anyone could want or need. Yet God, and the One who became His Son, decided to no longer play it safe. It was time to take the greatest risk ever. That risk was to share their glory. They devised a plan which included the creation of a world and man to inhabit it. It was a risky plan that would include sacrifice and self-denial. It would cost the One who became Jesus Christ everything. But He could see the end of it all and He was willing to take the risk.

So that Eternal Being, who became God’s Son, stood above the circle of the earth and thundered into the darkness of space, “Let there be light, and there was light.” Jesus was the One who created Adam and Eve and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. He was the One who called Moses from Mount Sinai, delivered the nation of Israel from the land of Egypt, and opened the waters of the Red Sea. In short, Jesus was the God Israel knew and worshiped in the Old Testament. All of this happened before Jesus was born as God’s baby Son. John 1:1 tells us that “BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is – nothing existed that he didn’t make” (TLB). In other words, Jesus created the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the earth, the universe and man!

Man was the risky element in this creation. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve. Since the “wages of sin is death,” man was now eternally lost and without hope. God didn’t play it safe. He sent John the Baptist as a forerunner or a witness to the fact that Jesus is the “light” of the world, the hope for mankind. Then Jesus arrived on the scene. He took the greatest risk and divested Himself of all His glory to become our Savior. He no longer sat on a throne at the right hand of God. In order for Him to be our Savior, He had to become human so that He could die for our sins. All human beings are at risk and Jesus Christ was no exception. He got hungry and thirsty like you do. Pain and sorrow were as common to Him as they are to you. All the glory He had before the existence of time ended when He became human.

As He walked the streets of Jerusalem and across the shores of the Sea of Galilee, people didn’t recognize Him as the Son of God. He risked everything, including recognition that He was the Son of God.

Why did Jesus do this? He did it all for you. God wanted a family so badly that He was willing to take the greatest risk ever. He wants to share His glory with children created in His own image. You are so important to Him. Unlike Dan, God was willing to take the risk.

Dan played it safe and was unwilling to love. He knew that love would require self-denial and sacrifice – it cost too much. He squelched his ambition in order to prevent messing up his life with failure. He was afraid to give to the needy and help others for fear his charitable acts would go unappreciated. But Jesus was willing to give up everything for ungrateful, weak human beings who get sick, use drugs, mess up their lives with divorce, commit crimes, start wars, hate other people, etc. Why would He do such a thing? Because He loves you so much. Jesus knew that His love for you would cost Him everything, but He said that you are worth it! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV Study Bible for Kids). Now read that scripture one more time and substitute your name for “world” and “whosoever.” Jesus risked everything for you. All you have to do is to repent of your sins, believe on Him and follow Him every day of your life. The price you pay is nothing compared with the greatest risk ever. You have all eternity to gain and nothing worthwhile to lose.