This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. No one takes My life from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father. – John 10:17-18
This is about free will, or maybe it is about more than free will – perhaps it is about the purpose of free will.
Jesus explains Himself to us as the Good Shepherd, the genuine One who loves and cares for the sheep, is willing to lay down His own infinitely valuable life for their sakes. You may not want to think about that first statement too much. This is why the Father loves Me. It sounds dangerous and heretical to me.
That command to lay down our lives that we might take it up again is given to all of us, but are we all free to obey? When the New Testament writers spoke of freedom and liberty, this is what they were talking about – the capacity to lay life down. Christ gives us the freedom to receive the Father’s command and follow it.
Every day – today, for example, I have many things I have to do, as well as some things I’d like to do. The “have to dos” – fixing bugs, finishing designs and documentation, mowing the lawn, etc, would seem to be things I have no choice about if I want to keep my job and not be nagged. Yet in all those activities, I can lay down my life. I will have numerous opportunities today to practice putting aside my own desires for the sake of someone else. Whether it is making my wife happy with a nice-looking yard or helping out a co-worker or taking the pressure off a manager – maybe even causing someone else to get a boost in the company, a raise or a promotion, in all that I do, I can choose to lay down my life.
Honestly, the mistake I often make is doing something because I have to do it. The result is going to be more or less the same. The job is going to get done. What difference does my attitude make? I often complain that I am no better than a slave, that I have no choices in my life, that I never get to do what I want. I always have to do what someone else wants. I never have a minute to myself – which is true some days, aside from the time I get to sleep. I’m a busy person like most everyone else.
Jesus was going to go to the Golgotha. He knew that. He knew He was going to give His life for us. We can argue about whether He struggled with it at Gethsemane, but it is clear that He lay down His life by His own volition. At no point was anyone – it was utterly impossible – going to force Him to hang on a cross.
Before I can walk in the fullness of the Spirit, I have to understand that the same thing is true for me. I do not have to submit any more than Jesus had to. Sometimes the difference between being forced to do something and choosing to do something is pretty subtle, but it is always real. There is not much difference between one side of a knife’s edge and the other, but it is what makes it a knife.
Why should we cultivate that subtlety? I am laying down My life so I may take it up again.
4 comments:
A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well (Proverbs 25:26).
And speaking of yielding to the wicked --
I watched the news last night for the first time in several days. The world is obviously run by the zombies. I see dead people. I see stupid people. The big thing is still the Miss USA controversy (“And on the Eighth Day, the Lord said, Let there be controversy. And so journalists sprang forth out of the droppings of the ass.”) I think this is because it lets Fox News run pictures of a cute girl in a bikini, repeatedly. While it is clear that Miss California is dumber than a concrete life jacket, she is a mental giant compared to Perez Hilton.
O’Reilly had some other gay activist on talking about how offended he was that a pretty little blonde beauty contestant should hold, and especially express an opinion contrary to his. I think the homosexual community is overreaching – not that most of these folks are known for wisdom. The heterosexual male, which is something like 97% of men, looks at Miss California and Perez Hilton, and thinks, “Given a choice between sleeping with another man and Miss California, Hilton would go for the other man. But he is calling her dumb.”
I am untroubled by homosexuals for the most part. My best friend in high school was queer as the proverbial three-dollar bill. He was smart, funny, and had sense enough to know that I respected him for who he was but had absolutely no interest in his sexual preferences. On the other hand, calling me a bigot or stupid simply because I think marriage is a sacred institution is an attempt to bully and intimidate. I am unmoved. Next time, 'mo, try holding your breath until you turn blue.
I don't watch beauty pageants, but I hope these controversial questions ain't a new trend.
Incidently, what would a gay man know of female beauty? I would think that being gay (and an idiot) would automatically disqualify Hilton as a judge of anything other than bitchy gay men with an IQ of a carp.
Okay, I'll read your post now. :^)
Honestly, the mistake I often make is doing something because I have to do it."
I'm also guilty of making that choice, often. It's a huge difference when we take out the trash for the Lord rather than when we "force" ourselves to.
The difference between joy and resentment.
Also, as we lay our lives down in the mundane, we can also lay our lives down sometimes ultimately.
None of us know 100% whether we would jump on a grenade to save others or take a bullet for our wives knowing for certain we would surely die, but that may be a choice we might have to make someday.
After 9/11 I recall a Seattle Congresswoman coming on the news one night saying something to the effect: "nothing is worth dying for," showing all kinds of sad concern and hand-wringing over President Bush sending Troops into Afghanistan to bring justice to the Taliban.
Even when I had the most foolish ideas and leftist kind of stinkin' thinkin', an idea like that was alien to me. Because even then, I could think of at least a few people I would like to think I would at least risk my life for and (hopefully) actually die for, given the choice (of course, the only way to know for sure would be to do it, since risking one's life is different than choosing certain death).
So there are definitely degrees of laying our lives down, but the concept is still the same regardless, and Jesus demonstrated that perfectly. I mean, he laid His life down for everyone, including those who despised and killed Him (although it is the choice of everyone to choose to accept that, or not).
Whether it is the mundane, risking my life or the ultimate sacrifice I could make, I hope n' pray I make the choice to do it as unto the Lord. I also hope n' pray I never accept the idea that "nothing is worth dyin' for."
That's a good point, Ben. If nothing is worth dying for, what is worth living for?
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