Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread":
The Father so loved this lost, sinful world that He gave His Son to save it; and the Son did so. Before He died He prayed to His Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:4). Paul says that He is “the Saviour of all men,” not merely wants to be, but He IS their Saviour; but Paul must add something significant: “especially of those that believe” (1 Tim. 4:10).
In a legal sense Christ won “a judicial verdict of acquittal” for “all men” (Rom. 5:15-18, NEB). But the rebel who chooses to follow Satan can deny and cancel all that Christ has done for him, and has actually given him; that’s why Paul must add that He is the Saviour “especially of those that believe.”
In His “great controversy” with Satan, when He was with us in the flesh, did Jesus have to deny His own will in order to follow His Father’s will? Was His own will potentially contrary to His Father’s will for Him? Jesus says some surprising things:
(1) “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38, emphasis added).
(2) “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (5:30).
(3) Thus, He came so close to us that He took on Himself the identical struggle we have with self; He realized that self must be denied, crucified. His cross therefore was for Him the summation of His entire life (even from Childhood) spent in crucifying self. He never asks us to do something He has not done!
Was this constant struggle easy for Him? He tells us that His “yoke is easy” for us to carry (Matt. 11:28-30), but was it easy for Him?
Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we must look at how in learning to deny self He actually had to sweat blood! Never in 6000+ years of human history has anyone suffered more keen pain in self-denial than has Jesus. Satan tried to kill Him before He even got to the cross. Yes, it hurt.
There is salvation in looking at Him.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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