For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
That he gave his only begotten Son ... Although the initiative of the Father appears here in the word "gave," Christ also gave himself for man. Seven centers of initiative are discernible in the drama of the cross, and the student is referred to my Commentary on Romans, pp. 117f, for a review of them.  It is the Father's initiative on view here, and it is significant that in the Christian religion alone it is God who provides the offering for sin.  In this sublime fact, Christianity rises above any comparison with ethnic and natural religions, in which, in all of them, it is man himself who pays and pays.  It is always a man, like Prometheus, who is chained to the rock; but in the holy religion of Christ, it is God who provides the offering for man's sin.