If Jesus Christ be God and died for me...

I would exhort you dearly beloved, who walk in the fear of the LORD, to stand firm. Do not allow your hearts to drift from the truth of the gospel. In Mark 8, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?" His disciples gave him a variety of answers. He then asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter knew the answer, Matthew records his answer as, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16). "And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

If you talk with people today about Jesus you will get a variety of ideas about him. Most commonly people will correctly acknowledge that Jesus is a good person who embodies love better than any other. Beyond that however you may get a variety of ideas. And people will draw differing conclusions from the same ideas. But Jesus told us that he would give us the Holy Spirit who would guide us into all the truth (John 16). We do not have to be content with the ideas of people, even sincere, knowledgable people. We can search the scriptures to know the heart of God for ourselves! Following the last supper when Jesus prayed to the Father he said that the Father had given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given him (John 17). Then he defined eternal life: "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." If eternal life is knowing Jesus, then surely one of the most valuable things we can do with our time is to search the Word of God to understand the heart of Jesus, by the help of the Holy Spirit, who will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to us (John16).

I want to share what I think must be one of the most life giving truths from the Word of God: "Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10). This may sound like a very harsh thing to say, but I am so thankful to God for his love for me to reveal this truth to me. It is true that this is difficult, but as the Spirit of God gives us grace to embrace this truth and live it out then we will find life! This calls for dying to ourselves daily, continually surrendering our desires to the will of God and laying down our lives by putting God first and others before us. The cost of not doing this is too great, and the reward is to see the name of Jesus lifted high and to hear him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".

"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him." - C.T. Studd