WILLING

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10:17-18

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus had just completed a wonderful comparison between a shepherd and his sheep to the way He sacrifices for, connects with, and seeks to include all those who place their faith and hope in Him. His disciples are the “sheep” of His flock of which He is the Good Shepherd, a flock He loves and cares for deeply. Jesus knows His followers and His followers know Him within the framework of a beautifully intimate, divine relationship.

As we look to today’s verses, we see Jesus shift His focus from the relationship with His flock of disciples to the loving, caring affiliation He shares with His Father, the Lord God Almighty. Look again at His words from John 10 here:

“The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.” Vv. 17-18

God has a deep love for His Son, just as He had for all people in His creation, a people He did not wish to perish. This caused a deep dilemma because all people in creation were sinners and God could not be in the company of sinners. If there was going to be any hope of removing the separation, God would have to provide a perfect atoning sacrifice, one that would serve to wash sinners clean and prepare them for pardon.

Enter Jesus, the one and only Son of God, the unblemished Lamb who was sent to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29), the promised Messiah Savior.

Jesus makes sure the Jews in His company know that He is more than willing to accept the plan His Father had for Him and that meant laying down His life and taking it up again, resurrecting and then ascending to sit at God’s right hand, possessing all authority over heaven and earth.

Note that the authorization did not come from Jesus’ own inventiveness. It wasn’t His idea but God’s and Jesus said it Himself:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

It was God’s salvation plan from the start and Jesus was the instrument through which the plan would be carried out. If you don’t believe this, listen to Jesus’ own words as He pondered His pending death while praying in the Gethsemane’s garden:

“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42

Jesus was willing to lay down His life and His Father had not only deemed it was necessary but gave Jesus the authority to do it. It was God’s will for His Son and Jesus was willing to accept that, doing whatever God asked Him to do, even if it was going to lead to His suffering and death. None of what Jesus was about to go through would ever change the deep love His Father had for Him.

So what’s in this for us? What is the Lord trying to teach us today through these scriptures?

I believe the Word is reminding us that we need to be a willing people ourselves because Jesus the Christ, the One we are to model ourselves after as Christians, was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save us.

In the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer Jesus taught us, we are to say these words:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10

We ask the Lord for His will to be done but are we really willing to give up what it might take to carry out what He wants?

That’s the challenging question these verses pose to us. They convict our hearts and minds, leading us to the place we need to be: in complete and utter compliance with whatever God’s will is, even if that will might take us as far as laying down our lives, just as Jesus did.

God has a will for all of us. That’s truth.

Are we willing to receive it and carry it out?

That’s the question all Christians have to answer.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com