"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." John 15:13

No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. John 10:18a

Jesus just made an earth-shattering claim; He says that no one has the power to take His life. No person, no ruler, no authority, no angel or demon. No one in all creation can take His life from Him. 

So then, how in the world was it taken? If it wasn't the Roman soldiers, the religious leaders who plotted against Him, the crowds who yelled “crucify him,” the disciple who betrayed him, or even the nails in His hands. Then what kept Jesus on the cross? If Jesus was the only one who could lay down his own life, then there had to be a reason for this. What was needed in order for Jesus to give His life voluntarily?

He tells us in John 15:13 when He says "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." John 15:13 It wasn’t the soldiers. It wasn’t the crown of thorns. It wasn’t even the nails. He laid His own life down out of His great love for us. 

Love laid His life down, Love held him to the cross. There is No Greater Love than this. 

We know that at any instant during His hours on the cross, He could have “saved himself” just like the thief next to Him, mocked. Because little did that thief know, Jesus chose not to save Himself so that people deserving death like him could actually be saved instead. It wasn’t weakness or human cunning that held Him there, it was His powerful love. 

Nothing else in all creation had the power to put or keep Jesus on the cross than the great and true love that he had for us. love so vast, so deep, so relentless, that He willingly bore the weight of the world’s sin—to save us. Ultimately proving that His love was greater than His suffering.  

Love was what held Him to the cross and also what broke the graves hold on Him. Death was defeated. Sin was conquered. The grave was left empty. His great love laid Him down, but it also raised Him up.

No greater love than this.