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Sermonette: Just How Much Does God Love Us?
#1884s
John Reiss
Given 11-Jul-26; 15 minutes
2026-07-11
summary: Online gambling promises quick rewards, yet nearly 95% of gamblers ultimately lose because the odds always favor the house. In contrast, Scripture reveals a God who is not a gambler but an investor, willingly staking everything on a redemptive plan grounded in love rather than chance. This message explores the enduring theological question of whether Jesus could have failed in His earthly mission. While many argue His divinity made failure impossible, the incarnation required Him to fully experience genuine human weakness, temptation, and freedom of choice. As the second Adam, Jesus confronted the same realities of human nature that caused the first Adam to fall, yet He overcame every temptation without sin, securing humanity's redemption. His victory was not predetermined by compulsion but achieved through perfect obedience, demonstrating that God's greatest investment carried real peril yet resulted in eternal triumph. The cross, therefore, is not the story of divine gambling, but of sacrificial love making the ultimate investment—one whose everlasting dividends are the salvation and glorification of God's children.
transcript:
A church friend of mine complained to me that he's been getting all kinds of ads offering the opportunity for him to join in some online gambling. I can relate. When I'm browsing through social media, I have also received numerous offers, usually embedded at the end of an unrelated video that I think is interesting. The results of gambling can be very costly. 95% of gamblers lose money when they gamble. The house that basically assures that the casino will be the big winner, and the average player the big loser. The Gambling Clinic.com tells us that gambling involves risking an amount of money or something valuable and something that offers a potential big payout, but usually doesn't deliver. Gambling, they tell us, centers on the unpredictable nature of chance. I've probably been thinking about this for a while, but especially since it's last Passover season, I've been thinking a lot about the cost of Jesus' sacrifice to both the Father and the Son. I want to start out by saying stating positively that God is definitely not a gambler. But granted, although it was nowhere near the 95% range where most gambling resides, should we ask ourselves if there was an opportunity, a chance? That Jesus could have failed in his mission, and if there was, why did they take that chance? I was already working on this sermonette, and while I was speaking with another friend, I shared my thoughts that God is not a gambler, but in sending his son to earth to be a sacrifice for us, he definitely did take a natural risk, a risk that the son would fall short in sin. Leaving the son dead forever, and the Father without another like being in all of the universe. He immediately disagreed and told me that he could not believe it and even questioned as to whether Jesus Christ, could have even sinned to the man. I said, I'm, I mean, is not that what make God, he told me, to exercise the ability to live life as a man, but exercising power and control over sin? And he finished his thought, think about it. Jesus is literally called God in the flesh. So today's message is a result of my studies. A search on being gives us a summary statement. The consensus among many theologians is that Jesus could not have failed in his mission. However, Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network makes the following insightful statement concerning the crucifixion of our Savior. A lot can happen in 6 hours, but not just any 6 hours. These 6 hours are the most unique and critical ones, and this is the world and in fact, of the universe. The fate of the very godhead was at stake. Heresy, someone says. Well, let's ask the question, could Jesus have failed in his mission? If your answer is no, Mr. Crotch continues, then the whole mission is a fraud. The possibility of failure had to be there or there is no validity in the victory. Theologians have debated and wrestled with the question for generations, end quote. Mr. Crotchett's comments brought a suspense by Christian author Randy Alcorn. In a 2010 article, he writes, the statement by Paul Crouch is heresy. An orthodox understanding of the deity of Christ, it compels us to say that he could not have failed in his mission. Indeed, if he could have failed, he is not at all powerful and therefore he was not. And it's not God. Sounds almost like my friend. For a second witness, the Australian Lutheran Church sees much the same thing. I'll skip through the post, but they tell us that apparently, some people say that Jesus could have failed in his attempt to redeem lost humanity. Surely we have to say no. Such people begin from the point that he was a genuine human being tempted in all things as we are. So like us, he could have given in to temptation, lost faith in God, become lost himself, and failed to redeem us. The article also tells us in itself, it is right to say that Jesus was a genuine human being. But he was different from us in only two ways. He had no human father, and he was sinless. Interestingly, they also admit that as a child, he went for genuine development in in wisdom and in bodily size. He increased in his knowledge of the things of God and grew in his relationships with other human beings. On the cross, he cried out that God had forsaken him. He shrank back from the thought of suffering and death. But we still have to say no to the question, could Jesus have failed? Because it leaves out a consideration that this same Jesus Christ was also very God, all knowing and all powerful. He is above all failure, and he is also unable to know evil and sin in the sense of experiencing evil and sin. Then they add, remember. That Jesus is the one substance with the Father, end quote. In his article Fully Man and Fully God, John Reba disputes this claim. He tells us Jesus died, but one who's full of God cannot die because he is life inherent. It's it too simple a question to ask that if Jesus was fully God, How then could he die? That Jesus was God is without despite, without dispute. One of his names, Emmanuel, literally means God with us. Continuing, the apostle John writes in chapter 1 verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Then Mr. Ritenbaugh concludes he was God absolutely, but was he fully God? End quote. As this verse tells us, Jesus Christ was made flesh. Strong concordance tells us that the word translated flesh is the Greek 4561 sarks, and it means flesh, the soft substance of the human of the living body, which covers the bones and is permeated with blood of both man and beast. But more than this, Sars is defined as the sensuous nature of man without any suggestion of depravity, the physical nature of man and subject to suffering. It is human nature, the earthly nature of man, apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God. This human nature is what our Savior had to deal with and what he had to overcome. There is no doubt that Jesus had a heavenly Father and an earthly mother, and it's right well says God has life inherent, so he could not possibly have been our fully God and still be our Savior. Half of Jesus' DNA was from His Heavenly Father and half from his earthly mother. Mary was an outstanding and upright woman, but she was flesh and blood, just as we all are. And Romans 3:23 confirms that, like all of us, even Mary sinned at some point in her life. As James tells us, God cannot be tempted by evil, but Matthew 4 tells us that our savior was tempted by the devil. It is the exact same Greek word. The devil was looking at his very creator, and he knew who he was. Granted, he had a lot of time on his hands, but if he did not think that he could entice Jesus Christ's sin, why did he do it? We know that this temptation was real because the author of Hebrews tells us twice that Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. In one of them, Hebrews 2:17, we read that he was made like his creation in all things. The word is pos in Greek, and the same word that Jesus used when he said that man shall live by every pos word of God. Our savior knows exactly what it is like to resist human nature. In other words, our savior was made like his brethren, so that he could truly relate to them. Although Jesus had a divine nature, he also had human nature. In Matthew 19:17, if we could turn it, please. Matthew 19:17. So he said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one that is God. Jesus tells us that as a human being, even with a shared nature, he was still not good, in spite of his sinless life. Our savior was indeed born of a woman. Reading Galatians 4:4 from the New King James Version, Paul tells us that he was born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus Christ was physically born through no process of human birth, but to his mother, Mary. In a forerunner article published earlier this year, Earl Hen writes, God did not inspire Paul to use the Greek word for born Gaul in Galatians 4:4, because he wanted to focus on the miraculous conception of Christ and the overwhelming significance of Jesus' sacrifice. Mr. Hunt continues, God emphasizes his son's humanity in his birth. Like all of the men, Jesus was born of a woman who was flesh and blood. Not only that, but the Greek doesn't include the definite article of THE and it should read born under law. He concludes Paul was speaking of law in general, not specifically the law of God, end quote. If he was born under the law, that means that his gestation was 40 weeks. He was nourished in Mary's womb by her placenta, and after he was born, he was breastfed by his mother and his earthly parents, had to teach him to read and write, as all children are taught. Call me a heretic, but I do not believe that he came out of the womb babbling in perfect Hebrew. Or even Aramaic for that matter. As Herbert Armstrong taught us, after Hillel's rebellion, he was still on his throne here on Earth. When Adam came, God offered him the possibility to replace Satan on the throne. In Genesis 1:28, if we can turn it, please. Genesis 1:28. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. have dominion over the fish of the sea, or the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God told Adam to have dominion, rule over the earth. But instead he submitted to the devil and allowed the ruler of this world to continue. When Jesus Christ came to the second Adam, he had to prove that a man could defeat Satan and assume his role in his place. That's another reason why you have to be flesh and blood. Celeste Adam also had to qualify. And God has a plan for all of mankind to be members of his family. He's not a gambler, but God is an investor in a remarkable project. Investment always involves risk. God invested everything that he had on his belief that his plan would be successful. There was a risk, and if there is anyone who could have lost it all in this venture, it was our Heavenly Father. Again, the risk of loss was nowhere near the 95% failure rate that the average gambler faces, but if Christ were guaranteed to win, they would have to make the supposed empathy that he shares without suffering extremely doubtful, and even the whole idea of him being a perfect predecessor between God and man, almost unbelievable. When Jesus became a man just like us, even he had to have faith and trust in God. We can't even begin to imagine the fear that he felt when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, surrounded by hundreds of armed and angry guards and soldiers, and yet, In his humanity, he still submitted to God's perfect will. Jesus succeeded with the first Adam failed. When we read in Matthew 28:18 that all dominion has been given to him. God is an investor. Both he and his son invested every possible thing that they had to ensure that their plan would be a success. It was not a game of chance, and they had confidence in their ability to bring it about. But they put everything on the line. Jesus was flesh and blood. He got hungry, thirsty, and tired. He wept. He felt fear. He got righteously angry. He had friends, and he had enemies. Just like us, he could have failed in his mission. But unlike us, he chose not to, not even once. As we come near to a close, I'd like to read Hebrews 4:15 from the Amplified Bible. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but one who has been tempted, knowing exactly what it feels like to be human in every respect as we are, yet without committing any sin. Mr. Crouch tells the story of a time in the systematic theology class, when his instructor was confronted with the question as to whether Jesus could have failed in his mission. Doctor Williams Collin responded, gentlemen, I do not know for certain if Jesus could have failed in his mission to redeem us all. But I know for certain that he did not. As a man, Jesus was presented with the same command that we are all given in Deuteronomy 30:19. I set before you life and death. To life. Our savior was not an automaton. He had freedom of volition and thankfully, thankfully for us, he made the right choice every single time. Brethren, God the Father and Jesus Christ put everything that they had on the line. They literally risked everything possible. But the essence of love is sacrifice, and this, all of this shows how much that God loves us. I guess it had to be so. The peril was real, but the Bible tells us that God is love, and it also says that love never fails. Both God and Christ have delivered on their commitment, and today we are indeed winners in life's lottery. But it is not a lucky roll of the dice. Our success is anything but instant. It is the result of a thoughtfully considered and carefully planned investment. Both God and Christ took a calculated but incomparable risk on the success of their project. But the result of that risk is an unimaginable payoff for us and for them. It is an investment in our future eternal life that will repay them in dividends forever and ever. God's divine children, our glory will be their glory. And unlike in gambling, everyone will come out winners.
JR/aws+/
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