How should you respond to the agony that Jesus went through?
He died for everyone so that we have all died to our old life. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
1 Peter 4:1-5 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. 2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
As a Christian, I have received the greatest gift of all, it came with a very hefty price tag, Jesus gave it all in order to purchase this gift. I have received the gift of eternal life in the presence of God and all of the riches that heaven has to offer. We don't like to think of the unpleasant events that led to Jesus sacrifice but we need to let it sink into our minds and let it have an affect on our lives.
As a result of his sacrifice I have the opportunity to have a relationship with God. Everybody knows that if a relationship is going to be successful then you have to do things certain things for them to work. A relationship needs to be cultivated, you have to give it some TLC in order to get good results, my relationship with God is no different.
Jesus has done so much for me, it is a lopsided relationship, how could I ever do enough to balance out what he has done for me? I can't do anything that will even out the score, I can never give back as much as he has given but I can do something to show my love and gratitude which will help keep our relationship from being so lopsided.
Jesus said that if we loved him then we would do what he commands, in the letter that Peter wrote he says that we will "be anxious to do the will of God" (1 Peter 4:2). That sounds a lot different from the lives of many people that are in the church. We are anxious people, we worry about so many things, but are we anxious for the right things? Are we anxious to live to please our Lord?
Christ died for me so that I can live for him.
Romans 6:4-8 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him.It is a process that doesn't happen overnight (2 Corinthians 3:18). Christ followers should have started dying to our old life and the power of sin should be lessening as we begin to live for Christ. We shouldn't look like the rest of the world, our Facebook page should look different, our internet history should look different, the words that we use and the words that we hear in music, television and movies should be different as well.
I need to respond to the awesome show of love that was displayed on the cross. In light of the crucifixion, it would be a crime to go on living without any effect on my life. I need to give up everything for Christ, I need to be anxious to do God's will and to do his work, it is easy to get mixed up and start chasing your own desires.
Help me Lord to show you as much love and appreciation as possible for the amazing things that you have done for me.
