Just Perhaps
by Robin Tyler
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NIV). Shortly after Jesus gave these instructions to His disciples He laid down His life for those He loved. His heart was broken by the effects of sin. In the aftermath of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and the gifting of the Holy Spirit, the gospel took off like wild fire. Jesus’s disciples wanted the world to know about His great love.
Who can fathom a love so deep? How do we wrap our head around it? We cannot. The obedience and sacrifice Jesus showed, leaving heaven to subject himself to brutal cruelty and death for rebellious sinners such as us, is more than we can comprehend. Try as we may to understand, we fall short in truly understanding His love.
Getting a glimpse of the magnitude and depth of God's love, in the timing and portions He reveals to us, we stand in aw. It should create a strong desire in us to return that love to Him and share that love with others. We are imperfect created beings. Try as we may, we will fall short reciprocating His perfect love. In spite of our imperfections, God graciously gives us opportunities to do for Him what He has done for us. (“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16 NIV) His love was put on full display on the cross. And we, broken as we are, are called to love as He SO loved us.
Laying down our lives, accepting what was done on the cross for us, we are transformed. As a transformed being, we no longer live for ourselves but for the One who lives in us. By faith we grow into His likeness, sometimes slow and sometimes fast. Jesus laid down all of who He was in exchange for us to have an opportunity to be more than we could ever possibly be on our own. It’s a gift and an opportunity to experience and know things otherwise impossible. (“‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’—the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV)
Because of our love for Him, there is joy laying down things in our life that does not look like Him. We lay down things like pride, selfishness, bitterness, stealing, addictions, anger, anxiety, hate, lying, idols, excessiveness, fear, jealousy, cursing, immoral thoughts, an unforgiving heart, and other things that keep us in bondage to the evil one.
Because of His great love for us, we get to choose to take up things such as the belt of truth, time with family, love, the helmet of salvation, patience, the breastplate of righteousness, peace, humility, the shield of faith, a forgiving heart, the Sword of the Spirit, time with God, feet ready to go and tell the gospel, feet ready to make disciples, and others.
Laying down and taking up things is not always easy. We are given the freedom to choose because we have a God who loves us that much. Great love and a broken heart for people is why Jesus died. ‘Just Perhaps’ a great love for God, with great love and a broken heart for people, became our ‘Why’ we choose to lay some things down and take some things up. What might happen?
