Daily Devotional: Good Friday: The Cross of Sacrificial Love”
Written by Sunny Unachi on 29th March 2024
Scripture: John 19:17–37
‘When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.’ (V 23)
Good Friday, when Satan assumed he’d defeated God. Death is the weapon he uses to scare humanity. Mortality must inevitably surrender to death. But Jesus, although tempted in every way as we are, refused sin (Heb. 4:15). We learn he only did what His Father told Him to do (John 5:19). This is why we ask Jesus to lead us in the way we live our life. We too will face moments of testing, and may fail the test, but there is always a way back into God’s gracious arms. On the cross Jesus’ arms were stretched open wide in welcome, a symbol of his acceptance and permanent love for us. Whilst Jesus removed Sin through His crucifixion, it wasn’t the nails of Sin that held him there but his active love for us.
How do we respond to God’s love? When we fail, as we will, we’re not to pity ourselves nor wallow in regret, but respectfully kneel and ask God’s forgiveness. We’re willingly to strip ourselves of our pride, hypocrisy, and self justification and surrender to God (Galatians 5:24). Jesus never defended himself from the moment of His arrest but entrusted himself entirely to his Father’s care. He set aside his preference in favour of God’s purpose (Luke 22:42). The cross, or the death of self will, lies at the heart of Christian discipleship. Jesus’ final possessions, his clothes, were taken from him. We are invited, and can expect, to lay everything aside for Jesus.
Today Consider what might you most helpfully take off and lay at the foot of the cross?
So our Action today. Identify where and how you serve your own interests and consider how serving Jesus’s purpose first will impact your life choices going forward. Write this down and review it in a week’s time to see how you’re doing.
Prayer: ‘Lord, not my will but yours be done in my life. Amen’
