THE GIFT Given to THE SON

A Love Story Beyond All Understanding

We Are the Father’s Gift to the Son

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
— John 17:24

Before the Beginning

Before there was time, before there was space, before there was creation—there was love.

Not loneliness seeking fulfillment. Not emptiness seeking completion. Not need seeking satisfaction.

Perfect, infinite, overflowing love.

The Father loving the Son. The Son loving the Father. The Spirit proceeding from both in eternal communion. The Trinity—complete, whole, lacking nothing, needing no one.

And yet—love gives.

Not because it must. Not because it lacks. But because giving is the essence of perfect love.

And so, in the counsel of eternity, in the mystery hidden for ages, in the plan conceived before the foundation of the world, the Father decided to give His Son a gift.

A Bride. A Family. A Body. A Beloved.

Us.

The Father’s Love for the Son

To understand this story, we must first grasp something our finite minds can barely touch: the infinite love of the Father for the Son.

Before the Foundation of the World

John 17:24: “Father… you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Before galaxies spun into existence, the Father loved the Son with perfect, complete, infinite love.

This was not love that developed over time. Not love that grew through relationship. This is eternal, uncreated, infinite love—the very nature of God Himself.

1 John 4:8: “God is love.”

Not “God has love” or “God shows love.” God IS love. Love is His essence, His nature, His being.

And the primary expression of this love in eternity past was the Father’s love for the Son.

The Father’s Delight in the Son

Matthew 3:17: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Proverbs 8:30-31 (Wisdom/Christ speaking): “Then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.”

The Father delights in the Son. Takes infinite pleasure in Him. Rejoices in Him continuously.

This is not mere affection. This is the blazing center of all reality—the Father’s love for the Son and the Son’s love for the Father, eternally giving, eternally receiving, eternally overflowing.

The Father Gives All to the Son

John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”

John 16:15: “All that the Father has is mine.”

John 17:10: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine.”

The Father holds nothing back from the Son. Everything the Father has, the Father gives to the Son.

This is the pattern of perfect love: complete, unreserved, eternal giving.

The Gift Conceived in Eternity

In this overflow of perfect love, the Father conceived a gift for His Son.

Not because the Son needed anything. Not because the Father owed anything. But because love gives, and perfect love gives perfectly.

What Gift Could You Give to One Who Has Everything?

The Son possesses everything the Father has. He is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact imprint of His nature (Hebrews 1:3). He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15).

What gift could possibly be given to One who is Himself God?

The answer is stunning in its simplicity and breathtaking in its implications:

A Bride. A Family. Others to love.

The Plan Before Time

Ephesians 1:4-6: “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.”

Before creation, the Father chose us. Before time, He predestined us for adoption. Before the fall, He planned redemption.

Why?

To give us to His Son.

John 17:6: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me.”

John 6:37: ”All that the Father gives me will come to me.”

We are the Father’s gift to the Son.

The Cost of the Gift

But here’s where the story takes a turn that staggers the mind and breaks the heart:

This gift would cost everything.

The Son Must Purchase His Bride

Unlike any other gift ever given, this Bride could not simply be created and presented.

She was fallen. Corrupted. Enslaved to sin. Condemned to death. Separated from God.

For the Father to give this Bride to His Son, someone would have to pay the price:

- Bear the wrath of God against sin
- Satisfy the demands of justice
- Break the power of death
- Defeat the enemy
- Reconcile the hostile
- Redeem the enslaved
- Purify the defiled
- Transform the corrupted

There was only One who could pay this price: the Son Himself.

The Father’s Gift Required the Son’s Sacrifice

Think about this: The Father’s gift to the Son required the Son to give His life to receive it.

John 10:17-18: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

The Father wasn’t forcing the Son to die. The Son wasn’t reluctantly obeying a harsh Father.

This was the mutual plan of infinite love:

The Father, loving the Son, gives Him a Bride.

The Son, loving the Father, lays down His life to receive her.

Both giving everything out of love.

The Lamb Slain Before the Foundation of the World

Revelation 13:8: “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

1 Peter 1:19-20: “The precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world.”

Before creation, it was settled. The gift (us) would require the sacrifice (Him). The Bride would cost the blood of the Bridegroom.

And both Father and Son said: “Worth it.”

The Son’s Love for the Father

Now look at this from the Son’s perspective.

The Father offers Him a gift: a Bride, a Family, a Body, a Beloved.

But to receive this gift, the Son must:

- Leave heaven’s glory
- Take on human flesh
- Live a perfect life
- Bear infinite wrath
- Die a criminal’s death
- Descend to the grave
- Rise victorious
- Ascend glorified

Why would the Son do this?

Love for the Father

John 14:31: “But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

Jesus went to the cross to demonstrate His love for the Father.

The Father desired to give Him a Bride. The Son, loving the Father infinitely, would do anything—even die—to receive the Father’s gift and fulfill the Father’s desire.

Delight in the Gift

Hebrews 12:2: “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.”

What was the joy set before Him? Us. The Bride. The gift from the Father.

Isaiah 53:11: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.”

The Son looked ahead and saw the gift the Father was giving Him—and He considered it worth all the suffering.

The Prize Worth Dying For

Ephesians 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

He gave Himself up for her (us). He cleansed her. He sanctifies her. He will present her to Himself.

We are the prize. We are the treasure. We are the joy. We are the gift the Father gave Him, and He considered us worth dying for.

Infinite Love Beyond Understanding

Ephesians 3:17-19: “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Paul prays that we would know the love that surpasses knowledge.

How can we know what surpasses knowledge? We can’t comprehend it with our minds. We must experience it in our spirits.

This love between Father and Son, this infinite exchange of gift-giving, this mutual sacrifice for mutual joy—it’s beyond human understanding.

No mind of fallen Adam can conceive it. Only in the risen Jesus, the Second Adam, can we experience it.

Ephesians 3:20

Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

The Father’s love for the Son is beyond what we can ask or think.

The Son’s love for the Father is beyond what we can ask or think.

The Father’s plan to give us to the Son is beyond what we can ask or think.

The Son’s sacrifice to receive us is beyond what we can ask or think.

The glorious intentions of the Father for humanity—the Bride of Christ—are so far beyond our comprehension that we can only stand in awe and worship.

No Eye Has Seen

1 Corinthians 2:9-10: “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”

We can’t imagine the full scope of what God has prepared for us.

We can’t conceive the depths of love that gave us as a gift to the Son and gave the Son as a sacrifice for us.

But the Spirit reveals it to our spirits, and we experience what we cannot fully comprehend.

We Are the Gift That Only Gives

Here’s the beautiful paradox: We are a gift, but we also become givers.

The Father Gives Us to the Son

John 17:6, 9: “Yours they were, and you gave them to me… I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”

We belonged to the Father. He gave us to the Son. We are the Father’s gift to Jesus.

The Son Gives Himself for Us

Galatians 2:20: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Ephesians 5:2: “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”

The Son received us as a gift from the Father, then gave Himself to redeem us, cleanse us, transform us into the Bride worthy of His name.

We Give Ourselves Back to Him

Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

2 Corinthians 8:5: “They gave themselves first to the Lord.”

We, having been given as a gift and redeemed by His sacrifice, now give ourselves back to Him.

The Gift That Only Gives, Never Takes

This is the nature of perfect love: it gives continuously, overflows eternally, takes nothing.

- The Father gives to the Son (us)
- The Son gives to the Father (His life) to receive the gift
- We give ourselves to the Son in gratitude
- The Son gives Himself to us (His Spirit, His life, His glory)
- We give glory back to the Father and Son
- The cycle of giving continues eternally

No one takes. Everyone gives. This is the economy of infinite love.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

2 Corinthians 9:15: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

The Story: From Eternity to Eternity

Let me tell you the story—the greatest love story ever told.

In Eternity Past

The Setting: Before time, before space, before creation—the Father and Son dwelling in perfect love, complete in the Godhead.

The Father speaks: “Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, You are My delight, My joy, the radiance of My glory. I desire to give You a gift—a Bride, a Family, others to share Our love.”

The Son responds: “Father, I love You infinitely. Whatever gift You desire to give Me, I will receive with joy. But I see that this Bride is fallen in Your foreknowledge, corrupted by sin, enslaved to death. What must be done to make her worthy?”

The Father replies: “She must be redeemed. Justice must be satisfied. Wrath must be borne. Death must be defeated. Someone must die in her place.”

The Son declares: “Then I will go. I will take on flesh. I will live the life she could not live. I will die the death she deserved to die. I will purchase her with My blood. I will present her to Myself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle. This is how I will show My love for You, Father—by receiving Your gift at the cost of My life.”

The Father affirms: “You are My Beloved Son. I will give You all things. I will raise You from the dead. I will seat You at My right hand. I will give You a name above every name. And I will give You the Bride You have purchased, holy and blameless, forever Yours.”

The Spirit confirms: “I will proceed from You both. I will seal the Bride. I will indwell her. I will transform her. I will guarantee her redemption until the day she is presented in glory.”

And it was settled in eternity: The scroll was written. The plan was fixed. The gift was promised.

At Creation

Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image.”

The Father created humanity—male and female—in Their image, for Their glory, with the Bride already in view.

Adam was formed from dust. Eve was taken from Adam’s side while he slept.

The prophetic picture: One day, the Second Adam (Jesus) would be put into the sleep of death, His side would be pierced, and from His wounded side would come the Bride—the Church, purchased with His blood.

At the Fall

Sin entered. Death reigned. The Bride-to-be was corrupted, enslaved, condemned.

But the Father’s gift was not rescinded. The Son’s mission was not canceled. The plan stood firm.

Genesis 3:15: The first prophecy—the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, though it would bruise His heel.

The gift would still be given. The price would still be paid.

Through the Ages

Every sacrifice pointed to Him. Every prophet spoke of Him. Every promise guaranteed Him.

The Father was preparing the gift. The Son was coming to receive her.

Isaiah 53:10: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.”

The offspring—the children, the Bride, the family—would be His.

At the Incarnation

The fullness of time arrived.

Galatians 4:4-5: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

The Son left heaven. Took on flesh. Entered the world He had created.

Philippians 2:6-8: “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Why? To receive the Father’s gift. To redeem the Bride. To fulfill the eternal plan.

At the Cross

The hour arrived.

John 12:27-28: “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

The Son bore the wrath. Suffered the judgment. Paid the price. Purchased the Bride.

John 19:30: “It is finished.”

The gift was secured. The Bride was purchased. The price was paid in full.

At the Resurrection

The Father raised the Son.

Romans 6:4: “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.”

Acts 2:24: “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

Death could not hold Him. The grave could not keep Him. He rose victorious, having secured the gift.

At Pentecost

The Spirit was given.

Acts 2:33: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

The Bride was sealed. The guarantee was given. The transformation began.

Through the Church Age (Two Days)

For 2,000 years, the Father has been gathering the gift—calling, drawing, saving, sanctifying, preparing the Bride for the Son.

2 Corinthians 11:2: “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”

Every person saved is another member of the Bride. Every soul redeemed is another part of the gift. Every believer sealed is another treasure for the Son.

The Father is completing the gift for His Beloved Son.

At the Harpazo (Soon)

The presentation will come.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

The Bride will be caught up. The gift will be presented. The Son will receive what the Father has prepared.

Ephesians 5:27: “So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

At the Wedding Feast

Revelation 19:7-9: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’”

The gift will be opened. The Bride will be united with the Bridegroom. The joy will be complete.

In Eternity Future

Revelation 21:2-3: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”

Revelation 22:3-5: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Forever, the Father’s gift to the Son will dwell with Him. Forever, the Bride will be united with the Bridegroom. Forever, the cycle of infinite love will continue—giving, receiving, overflowing, praising.

This is the story. This is the plan. This is the gift.

The Implications: Living as the Gift

If we are the Father’s gift to the Son, what does this mean for how we live?

1. We Are Infinitely Valuable

Not because of what we’ve done. Not because of who we are in ourselves. But because the Father chose us as the gift for His Beloved Son.

You are precious because you are the Father’s gift to Jesus.

The Father didn’t choose junk to give His Son. He chose treasures—us—and sent His Son to redeem us, cleanse us, and present us in splendor.

2. We Are Fully Secure

John 17:11-12: “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me… While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost.”

John 6:39: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.”

The Father gave us to the Son. The Son will not lose the Father’s gift. We are eternally secure.

3. We Are Perfectly Loved

We stand at the center of the greatest love story in existence—the infinite love between Father and Son.

The Father loves us because we are the gift He chose for His Son.

The Son loves us because we are the gift He received from His Father and died to redeem.

We are caught up in infinite, eternal, perfect love.

4. We Are Being Transformed

2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

The Father is completing the gift. The Son is perfecting the Bride. The Spirit is transforming us.

Not by our effort. By His grace. Because we are the gift He’s preparing for presentation.

5. We Are Destined for Glory

Romans 8:29-30: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Past tense. Already glorified in God’s eternal perspective.

The gift is complete in God’s mind. We’re simply waiting for the presentation day.

6. We Give Ourselves in Gratitude

Understanding that we are a gift doesn’t make us passive. It makes us responsive.

Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

We are the gift given to the Son. In gratitude, we give ourselves back to Him daily.

This is the life of love—receiving and giving, giving and receiving, in the eternal cycle of grace.

The Mystery Revealed

Ephesians 5:31-32: ”‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

The entire institution of marriage—from the very beginning—was a prophetic picture of this ultimate reality:

Christ and His Bride. The Son and the Father’s gift. The Bridegroom and His Beloved.

Every earthly marriage is a shadow pointing to this eternal reality.

Every bride adorned for her husband pictures the Church prepared for Christ.

Every groom leaving his father’s house to receive his bride pictures Jesus coming from heaven to receive us.

The mystery is now revealed: We are the Bride. Christ is the Bridegroom. The Father orchestrated it all. And it’s motivated by infinite, incomprehensible, overflowing love.

A Love We Cannot Understand, But Can Experience

John 17:26: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Jesus prays that the Father’s love for Him would be in us.

We get to experience—not just observe—the infinite love between Father and Son.

How? Because Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.

Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

John 15:9: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”

The Son loves us with the same love the Father loves Him. The same infinite, perfect, eternal love.

This is incomprehensible to the fallen mind. But to the reborn spirit, it’s experiential reality.

The Response: Worship and Wonder

When we glimpse even a fraction of this truth—that we are the Father’s gift to the Son, chosen before the foundation of the world, purchased with the Son’s blood, sealed by the Spirit, destined for eternal glory as the Bride of Christ—there’s only one appropriate response:

Worship.

Revelation 5:11-14: “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped.”

Worthy is the Lamb!

Worthy to receive the gift the Father prepared for Him.

Worthy because He paid the ultimate price to redeem us.

Worthy because He loved the Father enough to die for the Father’s gift.

Worthy because He considered us—the Bride—worth all the suffering.

All honor, all glory, all praise—to the Father who gave, to the Son who died to receive, to the Spirit who seals and transforms!

A Closing Prayer

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—Three in One, One in Three—

We stand in awe of a love we cannot fully comprehend but are thankful to experience.

Father, thank You for choosing us before the foundation of the world to be Your gift to Your Beloved Son. Thank You that in Your infinite wisdom and love, You looked ahead and saw us—broken, fallen, corrupted—and said, “I will give them to My Son.”

Jesus, thank You for receiving us as the Father’s gift. Thank You for considering us worth dying for. Thank You for leaving heaven’s glory, taking on flesh, living perfectly, bearing our sin, suffering God’s wrath, conquering death, and rising victorious—all to redeem us, cleanse us, and present us as Your spotless Bride.

Holy Spirit, thank You for sealing us, indwelling us, transforming us, and guaranteeing our complete redemption until the day we are presented in glory.

We confess we cannot understand the depths of this love. We cannot fathom why You would choose us. We cannot comprehend the infinite exchange of gift-giving between Father and Son.

But we receive it by faith. We rest in it by grace. We experience it by Your Spirit living in us.

We acknowledge that we are the gift—not because we earned it, but because You chose it. We are the Bride—not because we deserved it, but because You purchased us. We are the Beloved—not because we’re worthy, but because You declared it.

And so we give ourselves back to You—living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, which is our spiritual worship.

We are the gift that only gives and never takes. We give You our worship, our praise, our lives, our all—because You first gave everything for us.

We await the day—soon—when the presentation will be complete, when the Bride will be united with the Bridegroom, when the Father’s gift to the Son will be fully revealed in glory.

Until that day, may we live as those who know we are loved with infinite, perfect, eternal love—the same love the Father has for the Son.

All for Your glory. All for Your pleasure. All because of Your love.

To the Father who gave, to the Son who redeemed, to the Spirit who seals—

Be all honor, all glory, all praise, all worship, forever and ever.

Amen and Amen.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus—receive Your Bride!

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

— John 17:24

The Gift.

A Love Story Beyond All Understanding.

We Are the Father’s Gift to the Son.

Chosen. Redeemed. Sealed. Beloved. Forever His.

Soli Deo Gloria — To God ALONE Be the Glory

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