Jesus had one purpose when He came to earth – the pay the penalty for our sins. He agreed to the plan of salvation and accomplished it through His everlasting love for us. This devotion looks at how we honor Jesus’ sacrifice and recognize the love of Jesus Christ.
Nuggets
- The only reason Paul could boast in Jesus was because Jesus put His love into action.
- What is mind boggling is Jesus didn’t deserve to go to the cross because He hadn’t sinned.
- What took Jesus to the cross and held Him there was His everlasting love.
Devotions in the Comprehending Christ’s Love series
Comprehending Christ’s Purpose Through His Love
This is it! We are finishing up the Comprehending Christ’s Love series with this devotion. It took a little more time than I imagined it would, but it has been worth it.
We have been looking at a sermon by Baker entitled Comprehending Christ’s Love. We’ve talked about the dimension of Christ’s love and why we need to comprehend it. Starting in the last devotion, we switched to looking at the purpose.
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Let's Put It into Context
“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is” (Eph. 3: 18 NLT)
Here is what we pulled out of the devotions so far.
- God’s everlasting love means that — no matter what we do — He is going to love us.
- God loves us so much that He designed a plan to restore our relationship with Him.
- The purpose God has in saving us is so that we are no longer spiritually dead.
- Jesus’ love for us is so intense that He willingly gave up His life — gave up Heaven — so His blood could be used as the sacrifice for us.
- The plan of salvation is open to all mankind.
• Even as His love for us is going to last forever, God is going to have an agreement with us that will last forever. - Because we are children of God, we are heirs of God.
- We are not called to be children of God by anything we do; it is about what Jesus has already done for us.
- We may not be able to figure out everything about God, but we have to figure out enough to believe in Him.
- What God won’t forgive is our continued unbelief.
- Jesus has a personal love for us.
- Love is the foundation on which Jesus and God built the plan of salvation.
- Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf is the foundation on which we, as disciples of Christ, build.
- We have to prioritize our relationship with God because that shows we place value on it.
- We can depend on God because He is us changeable.
Note: The headings in blue are Baker’s words, not mine.
That they might honour it
“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6: 14 ESV).
This verse nutshells it for Paul. It isn’t about him. There is only one thing for him to boast about, and it really isn’t about him.
Paul can boast that Jesus, in His infinite love, saved him and took him out of the rat race of this world.
Oh, yes. Paul was still eating and breathing. He wasn’t some type of ghost walking around.
What Paul was saying was this world was not a priority to him. He didn’t have to try to keep up with the Joneses. He could have peace even in a pandemic.
The only reason Paul — and we — could boast in Jesus was because Jesus put His love into action.
If Jesus wouldn’t have completed the plan of salvation, I bet He would have still loved us. But we would still be spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
Jesus accomplished the plan. He went through with it – even though it called for Him dying on the cross.
Paul could – and would – boast in the cross because that was where the Sacrifice was made to pay the penalty for our sins. Only by the blood of Jesus are we redeemed.
Glossary
Bayley catalogues how the cross of Christ exhibits the glory of God.
- The justice of God.
- The love of God.
- The harmony the justice and the love of God.
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What is mind boggling is Jesus didn’t deserve to go to the cross. He hadn’t sinned. There was no penalty that He had to pay for Himself.
When we think about God giving Moses the instructions for the temple, it started out with the priests asking for forgiveness for themselves (Lev. 16: 6). They had to get their relationship right with God before they could approach God to intercede for the nation of Israel.
Jesus didn’t have to do that. Jesus had not sinned. There was nothing for which to atone.
What took Jesus to the cross and held Him there was His everlasting love. He would complete the plan of salvation for us.
That is why Paul said he didn’t boast (or glory). Bond tells us what that is all about.
Bond translates the sincere affection that Paul had for what Jesus had done. Paul didn’t have a surface interest but was truly interested because he knew the joy and consolation that came from knowing Jesus and what He did for us.
Paul knew that overshadowed worldly wisdom and riches that brought worldly honors. He knew that he could do nothing to rival Jesus’ gift. He didn’t feel entitled because he was a Jew – or even the great missionary for God.
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I know. We might still be tripped on the cross itself. In a society that is divided about the method of capital punishment – and should we even have it – we might miss the significance of the cross.
Craufurd helped us understand why the cross. He wrote, “Now the teaching of Christ’s life and death is that God has a heart as well as a mind; that, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, love is the source and root of all things — stronger than hate, mightier than sin, more enduring than hell.”
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Ooo, baby. If you get a chance, read the whole sermon. Read it out loud with feeling. We’re going to dissect it sometime, but it tells us exactly why the cross.
Jesus told us time and time again that He wasn’t fulfilling the plan of salvation for Himself. He was doing it for God.
It is inexpressible love
So, class. Pop quiz. What did we learn about Christ’s love?
How deep is Christ’s love for us? God went to Him before we were even created and laid out the plan of salvation for Him.
Jesus’ immediate response was, “Good plan. Let me know when You are ready for me.”
It was on this love that God designed the plan of salvation. Jesus put that live into action. Even though Jesus didn’t deserve to die on the cross, He chose to because He lives us and wanted our relationships with God restored.
That love for us is unchangeable. It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, Jesus is going to love us.
We can do nothing to earn salvation. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with eternal life and good. Salvation only occurs through admitting we are separated from God, believing Jesus is our Lord and Savior, confessing God as Sovereign Lord, and demonstrating that commitment by living a submitted life of obedience to God.
What was Jesus’ sole purpose for coming to the earth? His goal was to complete the plan of salvation so that His blood could pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind who would accept Him.
Jesus didn’t want us to remain spiritually dead. He wants us spiritually alive. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What does it make us when we accept the gift of salvation? We go from being a creation of God made in His image to children of God. We only become His children by ABCDing.
Jesus still loves non-believers. God still loves them. They are not children and heirs of God.
How does that impact our day-to-day lives? Jesus is always there for us. He won’t leave us.
But we have to prioritize our relationship with God. It has to be first and foremost.
That doesn’t mean we are going to figure everything out. We can’t. We aren’t in God’s pay scale.
God will, however, reveal to us what we need to know. We just have to submit and believe because God won’t forgive our continued unbelief.
Making the Connections
When we say only boast in the cross, we aren’t saying don’t be proud of your accomplishments. God wants us to be joyful in completing a hard project or a long task. He wants us to celebrate the new things that we have learned.
What is being said here is don’t flip the pride into the sin category. Don’t think we did it on our own – for our own purpose. We complete our jobs because God has put us there to expand His kingdom.
We shouldn’t be proud of things that go against God. If something is inconsistent with the cross, we should walk away.
Newton reminded us that it is all about submission. He wrote, “All glorying consistent with the Cross must be made subservient to it.”
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We can glory in the cross because of the victory Jesus experienced on the cross. He beat Satan and his demons. It wasn’t an almost-a-draw victory. It was decisive. It was a no-questions-about-it victory.
How Do We Apply This?
- We need to use the cross to get a clear picture of Who Jesus was, what He did for us, and why.
- We are to imitate Jesus by changing our character to reflect His love, not the world’s.
- We can use the knowledge of the cross to raise us out of our trials in this world.
- We can use the cross to let go of this world and submit totally to God.
- We need to take a realistic evaluation of where we are on the Sanctification Road.
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That is it. That is what Christ’s everlasting love is all about. It is about us and our restored relationship with God.
Restore and/or build that relationship today.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Father God. You show us every day that You love us so deeply. You should us that love when You sent Your Son to die for us. You did this when we were still separated from and disobedient to You. Lord, we pray that all will hear those soft promptings of the Holy Spirit and accept Your gift today. Lord, tomorrow night be too late. Reveal Yourself to us so that we may know You and grow to be like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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