Question: Would a non-Christian give up his life for another?
Answer: Maybe.

Question: Would a non-Christian give up his life for someone who hated him?
Answer: Maaaaaybe. It’s unlikely, though.

Question: Would a non-Christian willingly die to pardon a person who conspired to kill him in the first place?
Answer: No way.

Who would?

What I mean is, if someone had plotted your death and succeeded in arresting you and conspired with the judge to execute you on made up charges (made up by him), would you agree to allow your death to serve as a pardon for the very crimes that killed you?

No way.

And that’s a perfectly understandable response. Who would willingly go and die for people who killed them?

Jesus would. And Jesus tells me (His Christian) to do likewise. My love for others is supposed to be so complete that I would die in the hopes that my death might save my killers.

That is a hard saying, but that is the Christian life we’re called to live. And if I’m supposed to love the worst of my enemies like that, then surely I am supposed to love everyone else. I may never find myself in a situation where I have to die as a sacrifice for someone, even someone who hates me, but even if that never happens, I must love everyone so much that I would be willing to die for them.

Because Jesus died for me.