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By: Tom Smith, Wooddale Church of Christ
Looking to Calvary’s cross can give us a great example of love and humility.
The King of Kings (I Timothy 6:15), hung upon the cross giving “every man” a hope for eternity.
In this article we are going to examine the humility of our Savior, the love of our Savior, and the gift of eternal life that we can receive because of his death.
The humility of Christ is simple to understand.
Christ was God in the flesh. (I Timothy 3:16) “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (John 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” To see that Christ left his place in Heaven, as he is one of the three in Heaven (I John 5:7), he then came to this earth thus making himself man, and living a life to die a death for all mankind. In this act we can see how humble our Lord is.
His love is also defined on the cross of Calvary.
Christ did not just give his life for all the “good people” he gave it for all, including the bad that they might come to salvation, which is in him. (Romans 5:6) “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Peter on the day of Pentecost, with those who were responsible for Christ death, offered even them salvation in Christ. (Acts 2:22-23) “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” (Acts 2:36-41) “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
The love of Christ is so much that even those with his blood on their hands were offered salvation in his name.
The gift of eternal life is in Christ.
There is nothing we have done to earn the gift, but most certainly we must earn the reward.
It is as simple as this, if someone deposited $1,000,000 in your bank account and said that you did nothing to earn this, but to be able to receive the cash you must go to the bank and properly withdraw it.
Christ has given us his blood that can and will remit our sins, but we must go to the bank to receive it (Matthew 26:28 & Acts 2:38).
We must follow the guidelines laid out for us to obtain eternal life (Matthew 7:21-23).
We must remain faithful (Revelation 2:10).
We must love him like he loved us thus keeping his commandments (John 14:15).
When you go to withdraw, you need to be sure that the reward is there, prepare today to meet Christ!
