The Greatest Gift

The greatest gift is the most costly as well: God's only Son given Incarnate to dwell with men as man and then to bear in His Holy Person the wrath of His Holy Father as the Substitution for the sins of all They determined before time to bring to faith, repentance, life instead of eternal death--the sentence Christ bore with merciful willingness, even as His Father poured out the vials of His wrath on the One Who was due only eternal glory.

Who can fathom the cost of salvation borne by the Son in obedience to the Father, granted life to the chosen through the Spirit?

Neither myrrh nor frankincense nor gold can purchase the souls so valued of old.

The costliest gift planned from eternity,
Given in time, wrapped not in royal robes
But human flesh swaddled in humility--
God with us, God for us, God redeeming us for God,
God giving up His life, God receiving back His life, God for God yet for man.
Who can comprehend the plan the Godhead devised?
We can respond to such grace only with repentance and gratitude for such merciful acts of saving sinners.