| Greater love has no one than this … |
| —from John 15:13 |
Has anyone ever asked us if we would be willing to die for him or her? In contrast, have we ever asked anyone whether he or she would be willing to die for us? It’s not at all likely that either of these questions would have ever popped up in our conversations.
We do have many examples in our everyday life of certain very dedicated individuals who daily give themselves to a task that puts them in a greater likelihood of death in order to protect others. Members of the military, police officers, and firefighters all face imminent death on behalf of others. But, most of us will never accept the challenge to undertake a task that will more likely cause our death in behalf of saving the lives of other peope.
Yet, when we consider our spiritual lives, Jesus was not only willing to die for us, He did, in fact, die in our place. Jesus took on the penalty of our sins. He died in our behalf to grant us forgiveness for the penalty levied by God against us. Notice what the Apostle John wrote, as recorded in John 15:13:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
As we begin a new day, we should ask ourselves:
“If Jesus was willing to die for us, doesn’t this indicate how seriously He takes His love for us?”
No one would be willing to die for us unless He loved us enormously. Perhaps, we should see what Jesus has done as an indication of how significantly the birth, life, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Savior truly exists in and permeates our lives. Is it too much to ask that we dedicate our lives to serving Him? I think not.
