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Would you be willing to give your soul (be lost eternally) if it meant that your friends would be saved?  Only twice in the Scriptures do we have examples of men that said that they would be willing to be accursed from God in behalf of their brethren.
The First Example Is Moses
In Exodus 32:32, Moses is speaking to God and says, “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”  Moses expresses a desire for God to be merciful to His people.  Moses had compassion for the people of Israel even though they had committed a great sin–idolatry–against God.  Why intercede for them?  Why agonize over their sinful condition?  Why seek God’s mercy in their behalf instead of God’s judgment?  Moses was merciful.  Moses was in fact reflecting the heart of God.  God reveals Himself to Moses as a merciful God.  In Exodus 34:6-7, the Bible says, “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the four generation.”  With this revelation, God imparts a new understanding of His heart to His people.  The lovingkindness of God is a golden thread that runs throughout the Old Testament and culminates in the sacrifice of Jesus for the sin of the world (John 1:29; John 3:16).  While God will punish the evildoer, He first extends mercy that leads to transformation of life.  If the people will repent of their sins, God will forgive them.  God plagued the people (Ex. 32:35) and three thousand died (Ex. 32:28).  God would not blot Moses out of His book of life in order to preserve the people.  He declares, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (Ex. 32:33). Moses’ intercession for the people was successful.  However, even Moses’ soul was not sufficient to redeem Israel.
The Second Example Is Paul
In Romans 9:3, Paul declares, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”  Paul expresses his love for his people.  His love for them produces an anguish in his heart for their salvation.  If Paul was accursed from Christ, would that save his people?  No.  Every person is individually accountable to God for his/her sin.  Paul’s love was not more potent than Christ’s.  Paul invokes a wish or desire.  He speaks a hyperbole to make a point.  His love for his people is real.  If one could sacrifice himself for the saving of his people Paul seems willing to do so, but even Paul knows that his sacrifice would not secure their salvation.  The exaggeration Paul made points to an even greater love already demonstrated.
The Greatest Example Is Jesus
In John 15:13, Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  The greatest love known to man is the sacrifice of self in behalf of others.  Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).  Jesus died for those who were His enemies as well as His friends.  “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:8-9).  Divine love transcends human love and so attains to the greatest love that the world has ever known!  Christ’s love is superlative love! It is unsurpassable love!  It is incomprehensible love!  “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).  Moses’ offer and Paul’s desire pale in significance to the act of selflessness and sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated on the cross.  Moses’ offer to God was refused by God because it was not sufficient.  Paul’s offer expresses his ardent desire for the salvation of his people, but it, too, would not secure salvation.  Jesus’ sacrificial act is the only means sufficient to save men and women from the wrath of God.  The reason for this is that He is the Son of God and His blood is the only means of redemption.  Whenever we proclaim “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” we declare the love of God to all people. If you are waiting for a greater love than what Jesus has already shown, I’m afraid you will be disappointed and lost eternally.  Awake, thou that sleepest and open your eyes to the greatest love of all.

In John chapter five, Jesus lists five witnesses to His true identity as the Son of God and Messiah.  They are:  John the baptist, the works He did (sum total of miracles and ministry); the Father, the Scriptures, and Moses.  This article will focus on the testimony of Moses to the identity of Jesus.  John 5:45-47 states, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.  For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.  But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words.”  Three facts receive emphasis by Jesus.  First, Moses, the Moses whom they had trusted and set their hope upon, is their accuser.  Obviously, they claimed to trust Moses, but in fact, they did not believe him.  Second, the ground of the accusation is stated, “If ye believe Moses, ye would believe me, for he wrote of me.”  Moses wrote of Jesus.  We will examine where later.  Third, Jesus indicts their faith.  Their failure to believe Moses results in their rejection of Jesus’ words.  Unbelief begets unbelief.  “If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words.”  The writings of Moses are introduced as evidence for the true identity of Jesus.  J. W. McGarvey states, “A more explicit statement that Moses wrote of Jesus could not be framed in human speech” (The Book of Deuteronomy, 280).
Moses Was The Author of the Pentateuch
McGarvey gives a cogent argument showing that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).  In John 7:19, Jesus says, “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?” McGarvey states, “What did he mean by the demand, “Did not Moses give you the law?”  In this question he employs the rhetorical figure erotesis, which is the most emphatic form of making an assertion.  It assumes that neither with the speaker nor with his hearers is any other answer possible but the one implied.  Another example is the demand, “Did I not choose you, the twelve?” (John 6:70).  Another, the well-known words of Paul, “Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized into the name of Paul?” (I Cor. 1:13).  His demand, then, is the most emphatic assertion possible that, neither with himself nor with his hearers could there be any doubt that Moses gave them the law” (The Book of Deuteronomy, 278).  McGarvey uses Jesus’ statement to refute the biblical critics who denied that Moses authored the Pentateuch.
The Apostles Affirm Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch
The words of Jesus affirming that Moses wrote the law (the Pentateuch) are confirmed in the writings of the apostles.  In Peter’s second sermon recorded in Acts 3:22-24, he quotes Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and applies the prophecy in Deuteronomy to Jesus.  “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me: him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.”  This is a prophetic declaration by Moses that is applied by an apostle of Jesus to Jesus.  The apostle John writes, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).  John affirms that Moses wrote the law (the Pentateuch).  Finally, the apostle Paul also affirms the Mosaic authorship of the law.  In Romans 10:5, Paul writes, “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”  In I Cor. 9:9, Paul declares, “For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.  Doth God take care for oxen?  The quotation Paul gives is from Deuteronomy 25:4.
Moses’ Testimony of Jesus
Obviously, Deuteronomy 18:15-19 is a key prophecy given in the writings of Moses about Jesus Christ.  Significant spiritual loss will be suffered by the individual who rejects the authority of the prophet like unto Moses which God would raise up from among the people of Israel.  Since Jesus is that prophet, those who reject Him and receive not His words will be condemned by the justice of God (John 12:48).  There are other statements by Moses in the Pentateuch that apply to Jesus.  In Genesis 3:15, we have the first Messianic prophecy in the Bible. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  This passage introduces the “seed of the woman” as a vague reference to Jesus.  In the genealogy of Jesus given in Matthew 1, v. 16 states, “And Jacob begat, Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”  The phrase “of whom” is in the feminine gender referring to Mary and not Joseph.  The reason?  Jesus was born of a virgin.  “Behold, a (the, –the definite article appears in the Hebrew, the LXX and the Greek) virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”  Luke describes this miraculous conception in Luke 1:30-35.  Moses records the background to the “seed promise.” Moses states the promises that God made to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3 and Gen. 15:1-6.  Through Abraham’s seed all nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 22:18-written by Moses).  Paul remarks concerning this fact in Gal. 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”  The promise of a Messiah was fulfilled through the birth of Isaac (Gen. 21:1-8; Gal. 4:22-31).  The seed promise was repeated to Isaac (Gen. 26:3-4). The Messianic promise was continued through the seed of Isaac by Jacob.  God repeated the seed promise to Jacob, “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 28:14).  This “seed promise” was fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16).  Moses gives the history of the genealogy of Jesus and that history shows that only one person could be the Messiah–Jesus Christ.  The veracity of Moses was never questioned by Jesus or any of His apostles.  Not only through prophecy, but also through typology, Moses wrote of Jesus.  Consider the mighty deliverance (redemption) of Israel from Egyptian bondage that was commemorated in the Passover (Exodus 12).  The Passover prefigures the deliverance from the bondage of sin (redemption) that Jesus accomplished through the sacrifice of Himself (the lamb of God, John 1:29) for the sin of the world.  Moses wrote of the “bread from heaven” or manna in Exodus 16.  Jesus is the true bread from heaven (John 6:31-35).   Moses wrote about the bronze serpent that was erected (lifted up) in order to provide a means for forgiveness and healing from deadly snake bites (Numbers 21:4-9).  John writes, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).  Later, John records the words of Jesus, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.  This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:32-33).  Through typology, Moses wrote of Jesus’ death.
Truly, God made known His ways to Moses (Psa. 103:7).  Moses as a lawgiver prefigured Christ, the lawgiver (Deuteronomy 18:18; Heb. 3:1-6).  Yet, Jesus Christ outranks Moses as a Son outranks a servant.  Even God acknowledges the authority of His Son in comparison to Moses and Elijah at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-5).  Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17).  Just before His death, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and so it was that all things in the law written by Moses and the prophets were fulfilled (Luke 24:44).