Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5v1-2)
Looking to the cross for our model.
Everywhere we look in the New Testament, the cross is the motive and measure of our conduct. The cross is to shape our attitude to other Christians (Romans 15 v 7; Philippians 2 v 3-8), the opinion of unbelievers (Galatians 6 v 14), and opposition (1 Peter 4 v 12-14). It is to shape our approach to leadership (Mark 10 v 42-45) and marriage (Ephesians 5 v 25). It all goes back to the call of Jesus: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9 v 23). The sacrificial love, selfdenial and service that we see in the cross are to shape our daily lives. “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5 v 1-2). It’s a hard ask. It’s self-denial. But Jesus says this is how you truly gain life (Mark 8 v 34-38). The way of the cross is the way of blessing (John 13 v 17). After all, it’s the way of my Saviour.
Looking to the cross for our acceptance.
The cross is our model, but it’s so much more than our model. It’s our hope, our salvation, our acceptance, our life. The path of the cross will crush you if you don’t also embrace the pardon of the cross. That’s why we need constantly to return to the cross to rediscover acceptance, pardon, forgiveness and grace. That’s why Jesus gave us the bread and wine. In Romans 8 v 1 Paul says: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Our sins condemn us Romans 1-3). There’s no denying it. But now there is no condemnation because Jesus Christ has redeemed us from sin and justified us before God (Romans 3 v 21-26). “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man” (Romans 8 v 3). There is condemnation. God doesn’t just sweep my sin under the carpet and pretend it’s not there. God has condemned my sin. But He condemned my sin on the cross. Jesus the sinless one became like a sinful one because He took my sin. He died my death. He paid my penalty.
There is condemnation for Christ Jesus. But as a result “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. No condemnation. You may think of yourself as a big failure—but God doesn’t. No condemnation. Other Christians may give you looks that say: “You’re not pulling your weight”—but God doesn’t. No condemnation. Christians need never feel condemned. The sermon may challenge you, but it cannot condemn you. Even when we do fail, even then God ooks on us in Christ. He sees His beautiful, righteous Son and delights in what He sees. “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3 v 17). Always, always we can come before God with confidence and freedom, confident that we will be welcomed and forgiven. There’s no need to earn approval, no need to prove ourselves, no need to perform. Many of us know this in our heads, but still our hearts urge us to prove ourselves. Or we feel it on Sunday mornings, but still on Monday we try to find identity in our work. We can act as if we have a contract with God: He’ll bless us if we serve Him. Tear up that imaginary contract! We’re not God’s employees. We’re God’s sons and daughters. Yes, we do serve God. But we don’t serve God to win His blessing. It’s the other way round: we’re saved so we can serve Him (Ephesians 2 v 8-10). By grace we begin a relationship with our beautiful, glorious, loving heavenly Father. And as that happens, serving Him becomes its own reward.
Extract taken from Gospel Centred Life
