Tuesday, 26 November 2013

JESUS

'...we will inevitably trivialize what it means to "do what Jesus would do" or to "live like Jesus."...until we see the heights from which he came and the depths to which he descended in coming as the suffering Servant who would bear our sin. We will belittle the magnitude of what Jesus has done if we fail to see the kind of obedience he rendered and the extent to which he was willing to go in ensuring that he fulfilled the will of his Father. The antidote to such trivializing and belittling is found in deep and prolonged meditation on the magnitude of the humble obedience and agonizing suffering of our Lord. May we take up the banner of "living like Jesus" only when we first have come to understand something more deep and profound about just what that life was like. May our minds be granted greater comprehension so that our hearts may be filled with deepened affection. Only then will we move in the direction we need to go in falling on our faces before this servitude, this obedience, that surpasses all others in all of time.' 
Bruce A Ware, The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ, p.27.