"I'd Rather Die Than Live Without You."

"I'd rather die than live without you." I was thinking about this phrase this morning. Or more specifically I was thinking about a popular 'quote' that is making it's way around the Christian segment of the Internet these days. "Jesus loves you so much that He would rather die than live without you." I was thinking about what that phrase actually means, and the thing is, it's simply not true. To die rather than live without someone is not love, it is obsession, and it is selfish. To really truly love would be to continue to live without the person and to do good for them, to wish them to be happy, to help them, even though there is no hope that they will love you back.

That is what Jesus did, Jesus came to our earth and died to make a way for us to be in heaven with Him, if we choose to take it. He died so that we could have a chance to love Him, and so that He could have a chance to spend eternity with us. When He came He knew His death would be temporary. He knew He was going to conquer death and be resurrected. Consider Jesus in His two incarnations;

1. As the Prince of Heaven before He comes to earth as the Baby Jesus.
2. As the man, Jesus of Nazareth walking on the planet, a human with us.

First, before Jesus was a man He was God, the Prince of Heaven for want of a better title. He knew the end from the beginning. He and His Father planned the whole Earth Mission together, and they gave prophecies that said that the Messiah would be resurrected. Isaiah 53:7-12 is one of these prophecies,verses 10 and 11 particularly only make sense if they are thought about in terms of Jesus having been resurrected. Jesus' death and resurrection was planned and prophesied before He ever came to earth. Jesus as God knew He would die, and He knew it would not be pleasant, but He also knew He would be resurrected, and that as a result of His life, death and resurrection we would be able to spend eternity with Him. So He chose to go ahead with the plan and be born as the babe in Bethlehem because He wanted to spend eternity with us, not because He couldn't live without us.

Second, when Jesus was a man living on the earth He did not have that 'God's eye view' that He had had in Heaven. He did not know from His own knowledge that He would die and be resurrected, but He did have the prophecies. Prophecies that He Himself had given in His 'God' incarnation. It is obvious that Jesus believed those prophecies because He tells His disciples on several occasions that He will die and be resurrected. One example of this is found in Matthew 17:22-23. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus struggled with His human nature, He knew the trial in front of Him would be terrible, that He would be betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, abandoned by almost all of the other disciples, mocked, beaten, humiliated. And He still chose to go ahead with the plan - on faith, faith in the prophecies that He would be resurrected, faith in the prophecies that we would chose to join with Him, faith that He would get to spend eternity with us.

Jesus did not chose to die because He couldn't live without us. He chose to die because He wanted to live with us - forever. The desire to be with the object of your affection, that is real love, and Jesus, The Prince of Heaven, He really loves us, He was willing, and is still willing to do whatever it takes so that He can be with us. Forever!