The Logic of Calvary

Descipleship

12

1Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

– Romans 12:1

20For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

– 1 Corinthians 6:20

15and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

– 2 Corinthians 5:15
(NASB® © 2020)

The missionary J. Alexander Clark once saw a lion attacking an African. He grabbed his rifle, killed the animal, and took the wounded man to hospital. Two months later, Clark was sitting on his veranda, and he suddenly saw a large procession of cattle, poultry, and people with the rescued African on the head. The latter fell at Clark’s feet and said: “Sir, according to the law of my tribe, the man who is rescued from a wild animal no longer belongs to himself. He belongs to his rescuer. Everything I have belongs to you.” This is a total surrender out of gratitude.

It is the most logical thing for us as believers to give our lives to the Lord out of gratitude for Golgotha. Paul also explains this in Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service“. “Reasonable” here is the translation of the Greek term logikos, from which our term “logic” derives. Can anything else be more reasonable, more comprehensible, or more understandable than living for the Lord out of gratitude for Golgotha?

At the cross, we find the origin of every ministry and every decision for discipleship. There can be no neutrality in the shadow of the cross. Either the word of the cross is foolishness, or it is God’s power (1 Cor 1:18). Either you are hostile to Jesus Christ, or you are so overwhelmed by His unique, incomprehensible death that you surrender your life to Him completely. To believe in Christ and at the same time lead a lukewarm Christian life is unfortunately often the case with us – but it completely contradicts the logic of Calvary. A Bible teacher once said: “The people for whom Jesus Christ died cannot deny His righteous claim on them. Otherwise, they would succumb to hypocritical Christianity or live for selfish pleasures. Our salvation demands our total surrender.”

The death of Golgotha often does not impress us as it should. If it did, earthly or even selfish desires would disappear, our thinking and being would be more filled with Christ, and every saved person would turn away from shallow Sunday Christianity. And: the world would be evangelized. Do we understand Calvary? Do we understand who Christ is, who we are – and what really happened on that cross?

Thanksgiving for Golgotha motivates devotion.

“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor 5:15)

“For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:20)

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