Today’s passage: John 13:31-38
Helpful thoughts:
- With Judas on his way to betray Jesus, the last chain of events leading to Christ’s crucifixion was in motion. His glorification (His death for our sin) was beginning.
- This task was His alone to complete.
- The crucifixion of Jesus is the grounds on which our sin is forgiven. God’s justice has been executed for our sin through His sacrifice. The crucifixion is also the highest form of love displayed for God’s people to emulate.
- Christ gave of himself proactively and sacrificially for our benefit. There is no greater love.
- Peter’s pride demanded he would be able to lay down his life for Christ. God’s decree demanded Christ lay His life down for Peter.
- The same self-centered thinking that motivated Peter to protest Christ’s words (In the appearance of risking his life for the cause) would bring him to deny Christ hours later.
Questions to consider:
- Christ again refers to the time of His crucifixion as His glorification? Why is that so? Why is the most humiliating and terrible death man could devise Christ’s glory?
- What are some examples of how we could love others in proactive, sacrificial ways?
- How could pride be behind both Peter’s apparent willingness to die for the cause and his willingness to deny Jesus within a number of hours? What happens to our “moral compass” when WE (Ourselves) become the magnetic pole? How is our thinking given clarity when God is our “true north?”