Jesus Teaches Us How To Die To Make His Death Our Life


GodReflection: How About A Better Way?

In the nation where I live Satan uses the continual noise of political party fiction and the friction it produces to distract our focus from reality. Very little reality flows from those in search of votes.

Then there is entertainment via television, theater, sports, and advertisements—and again little reality appears. Yes, I need to be reminded that reality does exist. And—its basis comes from Creator God.

Here is one of God’s Divine Realities. God came to earth to live as one of us through His son Jesus. He came to teach us how to make His death our death so that we can live now and forever.

He gave us the gift of His Loved-Son-Jesus to die in our place to cover our sin and weakness. That death requires my death to self. Jesus spent his time as a man on earth to live among us and to show us how to live and in that process how we must die daily to self so that we may live for Him and for the good of every person we encounter.

His way is the better way—now how do we claim that as reality for our own daily walk?   

When we examine the way Jesus lived each day on the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see the portrait of a man who awoke each day to serve and do good.

Next to his love for his Father-God, when Jesus walked the earth, he focused on the best interest and the good of everyone he encountered.

Story after story in the gospel accounts share his life as he serves others with the gift of his presence, to restore health, feed the hungry, and to teach them how to live a better way. His way introduces them—and us—to his Father-God who loves, cares, and saves.

At the heart of his teaching and example was the message that we must die to self to live. He affirms that he—the Son of God—came to serve not to be served. He taught me that my aim in life is to learn to die to self and to serve others. That is the Jesus way. That’s the better way. That’s the only way to receive life.

Jesus identifies as the good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep. To follow The Jesus Shepherd, I too must die to self and serve the sheep.

The evening prior to his death he shares his last supper with his twelve closest friends. With full knowledge of the cross to follow the next day he does what they least expect.

It is a picture of how he lived. And, the even greater lesson, it was a “show and tell” of the Jesus Way. Everything he did as he walked daily among them, he is now ready to engrave in their memory and at the center of their hearts. This is how they too must die daily to live.

He does it with a towel and a basin of water as Father God, Jesus Son, and Holy Spirit, become servants to creation and stoop down to wash “our” dirty feet.

Everyone present knew a teacher—much less—The Teacher was not to do such a demeaning act—this was a servant chore. Peter even voices the objections his companions were thinking but too stunned to question.

What he asks me to do seems impossible. From the time we bowed to Satan in the garden our lives as mortals are imperfect, incomplete, and weak. Most mornings before the sun begins to shine, I find myself in service to me by thought or action.

Then I remember the Jesus Way. My answer can never be found in self. As the apostle Paul so ably declared, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

How about it—let’s once again place our trust in Jesus, lean upon his grace, powered by his Holy Spirit within, as we renew our attempt to rise to follow in his steps.

Let’s grab our towel and our soapy grace water and pray that today we will grow more like him as we attempt to die more to self so we can make His death our death that we can live now and forever.

Let’s unite and demonstrate to our world this way of Jesus is the better way.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells

A GodReflection on Jesus Teaches Us How To Die To Make His Death Our Life.

Gary@GodReflectionBlog.com

Gary@GreatCities.org 

WWW.GodReflectionblog.wordpress.com

www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com

One thought on “Jesus Teaches Us How To Die To Make His Death Our Life

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.