Imitation and Redemption

Today at the Southern New England Council we celebrated the Lord's Supper. That ordinance of the church has always held special signficance for me. Today as I held the bread and the cup I was thinking, "We are alive because of the unwarranted sacrifice of Another. We were redeemed because One who did not desereve the blame carried our blame. I live from the sacrifice of another."

One of the statements that I have often heard but has left me feeling unsure is the saying, "If you had been the only person in the world,  Jesus Christ would have died for you".  I have had occasion to think about the "cost" of seeing someone come to Christ.  There are some sacrifices that come more easily than others.  There is no sacrifice we are asked to make in ministry, that Christ Jesus did not make for us. Do we lack good housing?  He had no where to lay His head.  Are we criticized for how we carry out the work to which God called us?  So was He.  His family thought He was wrong and self promoting. ("If you want to be a public figure…). Anything we might "suffer" so has Christ Jesus.

Jesus was despised, rejected and ultimately tried on fasle charges by human beings so confused about the nature of God that they were concerned about taking the bribe money they returned to Judas less they do sometihng unlawful but crucified the Son of God. As they taunted Him to “save Himself” He was actually saving us. As much as we would like the redeeming of souls to be easy, it is not. It cost Jesus everything. It will certainly cost us something. If we are not willing to count that cost, we will probably never see people come to Chirst.

Several years ago I heard a man saying something that has stayed with me ever. He said, “There are many things we can fail to do and call still ourselves Christians. But we cannot neglect these things and call ourselves imitators of Christ”.