I grew up hearing evangelists beg sinners to ‘come back home’ to Jesus as if every person on planet Earth is a prodigal who wandered away. I’ve heard the message countless times. “Look how Jesus suffered! He loves you so very much! You ought to show your appreciation and become a disciple. Won’t you give him your heart?”
While it’s true that Jesus died for those who crucified Him, it is a mistake to think Jesus was the victim of his murderers. Jesus died on that cross out of obedience to His Lord, not because He was overpowered by wicked men.
(John 10:17) The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Christ doesn’t need our sympathy. It is a flimsy faith that follows Jesus out of pity. “Gosh, the poor guy got the short end of the stick! I’ll throw him a bone and believe in Him.” We are deceived if we think we can do God any favors.
What’s often lost when we say, “Jesus died for the people who crucified Him,” is that WE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO CRUCIFIED HIM. Portraying Christ on the cross surrounded by Roman soldiers takes us out of the picture. We are righteously indignant about the torture that Christ endured from ‘those sinful men.’ So we ‘come back home’ lest Jesus die for nothing. We pledge our lives to Christ not to escape the penalty of sin, but to demonstrate our sense of compassion and justice.
God help us.
If you are a person who thinks Jesus is grateful for your discipleship, I want to offer you a word of discouragement. Stop it! You are a member of the family of God because Jesus forgave YOU for nailing him to a cross.
(Romans 6:22) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
One Response
God is gracious and merciful towards us, but it never occurred to me to think of Him as grateful to us. Sometimes I underestimate just how arrogant we can be.
I suppose it comes from my background in science. When I conceive of the Creator of a seemingly infinite universe, a universe created with the most minute details, I have trouble grasping why God takes notice of us.
David expressed a similar sentiment this way.
“Psalm 8:3-8 New American Standard Bible
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have set in place;
4 What is man that You think of him,
And a son of man that You are concerned about him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You have him rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put everything under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen,
And also the animals of the field,
8 The birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.”
We need to be thankful, not God.