“Greater love has not man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Truly, in Christ losing is winning and giving is receiving.
We know that from birth we are enemies of God. Our natural minds are hostile toward Him (Rom. 8:7) and from the time we choose wrong over right we are “ungodly sinners who are God’s enemies” (Rom. 5:6-11).
Thus, today’s Manna flies right in the face of everything the world holds dear. Ours is a “Survival of the fittest” and “Dog-eat-dog” world where everyone’s looking out for “Numero Uno”—and we know who that is, don’t we?
Yet, Christ’s words pierce through the pride, pomp-and-circumstance as the “Scalpel of the Soul” (Heb. 4:12), laying bare the sinful root of self-promotion and self-preservation. Truly, if we are to “know Him” (Phil. 3:10), we must be willing to “die to and deny ourselves” (Gal. 2:20; Lk. 9:23). Only then can we grasp the truth in our Manna and embody it in our daily lives.
Now, again, we must remember that Jesus didn’t die for His friends.
He died for those who despised and rejected Him. . .abandoned and accused Him. . .spit in His Face and pulled out clumps of His beard by the roots. . .and viciously nailed Him to the Cross though He’d done nothing wrong.
And, that includes all of us, doesn’t it?
Most assuredly it does.
Yet, Christ’s Love is greater than our sins. And, His Grace reaches down from the heights of Heaven to the lowest depths of hell.
Maybe that’s why it’s called “Amazing Grace.”
We’ve all heard or read of heroic acts in battle where one soldier throws himself on a grenade or bomb to save his fellow soldiers. And, we stand in awe of such “good men who’d dare to sacrifice themselves in this way” (Rom. 5:7).
But, such was not the case with Christ.
Again, He died for those who were “yet without strength and ungodly sinners, who were His enemies from birth” (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10). And, why did He do this?
Simply because of His “great Love” (Eph. 2:4; I Jn. 4:10).
Dear Pilgrim, no one—repeat, no one—has ever loved you like Jesus. No one—not even your parents or soul-mate—can ever love you to the same degree Jesus does. He willingly gave His life for us at Calvary so we could be forgiven and spend eternity with Him (Jn. 3:16). The question is, “Do you love Him enough to give your life in service to Him??”
January 16, 2012
