What kind of king leaves his throne just so that he can make a way for others to sit on it with him? What kind of king walks through his kingdom to rescue those that are against him? What kind of king dies so that others can live? What kind of king gives his wealth away, turns enemies into heirs, orphans into children, critics into partners and servants into friends? What kind of king is more concerned with the hearts of his people than with his own well-being? Why did Jesus become a man? Why did the Father send the Son? Why did the Creator become a part of the creation? Why did Jesus limit Himself, why did He put on flesh, submit Himself to weariness, suffer rejection and endure temptation? Why did He choose to die, descend to hell, defeat death and the destroy the works of the devil? Today I don’t want to concentrate on the actions of Jesus nearly as much as the heart behind His actions. We talk about the character of God a lot, today will be no different. The truth is that most of us in this room can tell the story, we can talk about Jesus being born of a virgin, the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. We can talk about His miracles and His ministry, we can tell the story of Jesus’ final suffering: betrayal by Judas, condemnation by the Sanhedrin and Pilate, the crown of thorns, beating and humiliation, we know the scene of the cross, the nails in His hands and His feet, the spear in His side, the jeers of the crowd and His final breath. Most of us have heard a sermon or two that simply told us that “Sunday’s coming”, that three days later, when all seemed lost, when hope and faith were probably at their lowest that Jesus rose from the grave having defeated hell and death and destroyed the works of Satan. We know the events of the story but I want us to be sure that we are convinced of the purpose behind those events. This week I was reading one of the passages of Scripture that I read often, II Corinthians 5. It’s a passage that centers me, that keeps my focused and that reminds me of who God is and who God has created me to be. It’s a passage that largely birthed the vision and mission of City of Refuge, it speaks of restoration and reconciliation, of the love of God and the recreating power of God through Jesus, in Him “all things have become new”. This week as I was reading this passage something just moved my heart that I want to talk to you about today. When speaking of Jesus and the gift of salvation I regularly quote II Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.” I was studying the language of this verse a bit more this week, as I did so I read the verse in the English Standard Version, it’s translated this way: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” All of a sudden I realized that three simple words sum up the entire gospel: “for our sake”. It is for our sake that everything that has ever been done has been done. God created us for our sake, He takes pleasure in us for our sake, He redeemed us for our sake. He loves us so greatly, His character and heart are so full of love that there is no selfishness in Him and so everything that has ever been has simply been because God is love and so He moves “for our sake.” For our sake Jesus didn’t just become man, but He became sin so that we could become His righteousness. Today, I just want us to see that the answer to many of the questions that begin with “Why?” is very simply: “For our sake”; everything is and always has been for our sake.