Father, I want those you have given me
to be with me where I am.
—John 17:24
Adam Scott was a bright, dynamic, loveable young man who had just completed law school when a senseless gunshot ended his life, just days before his twenty-seventh birthday. His father, Dr. Jack Scott, said he would gladly have died in his place. I’m sure he would have.
The apostle Paul’s heart was overwhelmed with grief because of his Jewish family and friends rejection of Jesus. “I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them,” he said (Rom 9:3). Eugene Peterson has Paul adding, “I’d do it in a minute.” I’m sure he would have.
Dr. Scott couldn’t die in place of his son. Paul couldn’t die in place of his people.
Jesus could—and did—die in your place.
Jesus chose to die for you
rather than live without you.