The Sacrificial Life

Prayer: Dear Lord, into Your hands I commend this time of devotion. Please challenge my thinking and strengthen my resolve to follow You alone. Enlighten my faith and draw me closer to Your truth. Holy Spirit, please speak so that I can hear and understand, filling my mind and heart with thoughts that encourage me and glorify You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Read: Matthew 16:21-28
http://www.esvbible.org/Matthew 16:21-28

Think about It: There are few images in the Bible more enduring than that of Christ carrying a lamb. We know how to identify with that lamb as we are transported over the rough spots and out of danger. We identify with the feeling of being carried by the strength of Christ who we are certain will never drop us or hurt us in any way. This is the Good Shepherd we are delighted to know.

In our text for today, Jesus tells Peter that as His disciples we are to take up their cross and follow Him. This seems like a difficult task, and that perception is not wrong. Taking up the cross means that we sacrifice the self. It means that we die to our own selfish desires and sin in order to be free to take up the life that Christ has won for us. If you have embraced the ways of God, your arms are too full to carry stuff you don’t need.

But consider that image of Christ as He carries you over His shoulder in reference to the work that lay ahead of Jesus. He was, within a few short days of teaching His disciples about this sacrificial lifestyle, going to be carrying something else across those strong shoulders. He would be forced to carry the instrument of His death, the cross. In all likelihood, what He actually carried was probably only the horizontal piece of the cross. It was fairly common to tie this part of the cross to the condemned man as he walked through the streets to his death. Just as Jesus carries you even now, so He carried all of Your sin to that cross and forgave all of it in His blood.

Makes the puny things we are asked to surrender seem very small, doesn’t it?

Prayer: In Christ Alone
In Christ alone - who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
©2001 Thankyou Music. Keith Getty, Stuart Townend CCLI#551204

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