When we realize Jesus became a living sacrifice for our sins, more as a result of obedience to the Father than because of sympathy for us, do we love Him less? What if His ONLY reason was obedience to God? Are we willing and committed to loving and preaching a Savior who died as much out of obedience to His Father as love for us? (Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42)
We need to be careful regarding the basis for our love for Christ, as it is easy to make Him into a Savior we would desire rather than the One sent by God. Human understanding of love is limited, but God loves infinitely. We might think we know what is meant by "For God so loved the world", but earthly understanding and experience will likely not provide the breadth and width of God's love for humankind. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
To base our godly intentions and service on such a limited understanding alone (minimizing the significance of obedience to the Father in Jesus' crucifixion) exposes us to the danger of living a gospel of man rather than God. Certainly God is love, but in love He chastens those He considers His children. (Hebrews 12:6) Do we accept and worship the God who chastens in love as readily as the God of lovingkindness? The challenge is in knowing and living as if He is One in the same - as Jesus did.
Pleasing the Father involves loving Jesus to the extent that He lives in and through us, not what we think of His Son. This means we should assume Jesus' attitude and perspective regarding serving God which allows Him to be formed in us - willful surrender, submission, and obedience to the Father. Will this be our motivation for the day? If so, will it be our living witness, regardless of the consequences?
Onward Christian soldiers!
Bob Benson
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from My Utmost For His Highest. . .
October 29
Substitution
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was "made . . . to be sin . . . ." Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take "away the sin of the world!" ( John 1:29 ). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24 ). John 14:9 , where Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father," was spoken to His disciples.
That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that "He died for all" ( 2 Corinthians 5:15 )—not, "He died my death"—and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19 ).
Amen!
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24
