Rudolf Gwalther on the submission of Christ to God the Father for our salvation

[Reformed Covenanter]

In the third place, it will be helpful to consider in what way Christ gave himself up for us. It was according to the will of God our Father, that is to say, of the same God who is the Father of us all, who not only created us but who also gave us a new birth in Christ so that he might adopt us as his children and heirs. It was the Father’s will that the Son should empty himself and be made man, not someone full of earthly power and authority. Instead of that, he took on the form of a servant and became the most despised of all mortal creatures, suffering every hostile and sorry thing that can happen to us in the course of this mortal life.

He was so obedient to this decree of his Father’s that he chose to be born poor and indigent, to a very poor mother in a stable. From boyhood he was educated in the hard work of his hands, and after suffering everything imaginable he underwent the punishment of a cruel and ignoble death on a cross. Every time we hear these things or read about them we are reminded that none of this happened to him by chance or accidentally, but that it was all part of the eternal will of the Father to whom he knowingly and willingly subjected himself in order to pay the price of our transgression and the guilt of our rebellion by the merit of his obedience.

For the reference, see Rudolf Gwalther on the submission of Christ to God the Father for our salvation.