Purpose In The Passion
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
Luke described the sufferings of Christ as “His passion.” If you have ever wondered whether God cares about you, Calvary puts that question to rest. Jesus proved that God is not just an omnipotent Being with supreme intelligence who runs the universe from afar. His passion proves that God’s love transcends all love, and He will withhold nothing to display that love.
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)
Calvary accomplished many things, but the first purpose of God being manifest in flesh was to reveal His personal nature and love for us, as John 3:16 so ably explains: “For God so loved the world, that He gave…”
God did more than love. He “so loved.” To love is one thing, but to “so love” is something else. So is more than a filler word. In modern English, we use so very casually (e.g., “So, my name is….” or “So, do you come here often?”). But in this context, so intensifies the word after it. To so love means to love in the extreme or without measure. After Jesus came into the world, love had to be redefined. The Greek dictionary added another word for love—agape love, meaning to love without expecting anything in return—because such love had never been seen before.
John explained the difference between God’s love and human love in 1 John:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
In other words, love is no longer defined by how humans love, but by how God loves. John emphatically stated that these two kinds of love are not in the same category!
Let’s go just a little deeper.
Paul explained the extent of God’s love in Romans 5:
For when the time was right, the Anointed One came and died to demonstrate his love for sinners who were entirely helpless, weak, and powerless to save themselves. Now, would anyone dare to die for the sake of a wicked person? We can all understand if someone was willing to die for a truly noble person. But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly! (Romans 5:6–8, TPT)
Wow! That makes it plain. Jesus died for us when we were walking the opposite direction. He died for the very people who nailed Him to the tree. Only Jesus can love like that.
He died for a reason. There was great purpose in His passion: He was thinking of you and me. Hebrews called it “the joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). He died on the cross so we could live! As the apostle Paul told the church at Corinth:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again… To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. (2 Corinthians 5:14–15,19a)
God never wastes pain. There is always a purpose in it. As we remember the price Jesus paid for us, I pray that we will feel Him near us in our suffering and pain. If there was purpose in His passion, there is purpose in ours too, and God will turn it for good.
©2026 Jason Sciscoe