Christ Our Example

There are many different aspects to what Jesus has accomplished for us. He is our substitute, our ransom, our victor, our example and so on. Let’s focus for a few moments on Christ as example, also called Christus Exemplar.

This isn’t the whole of Christ’s work, but it is an essential part of it. Too often American Christians reduce the Gospel to simply believing in a set of theological truths. But the Scripture teaches that there is no true discipleship without obedience. “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” John 14:21

A Lesson From Nature

God taught me a beautiful lesson through nature years ago from a scene that unfolded outside my living room window during a very difficult time in my life…

In May 2003, my Dad died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. He was 56 and very healthy – a runner, cyclist and mountain climber. He just dropped dead one day and the coroner had his body for three days before they even found the cause of death. Dad was single and I’m the eldest child so the responsibility fell to me to take care of things. The shock and grief I felt were overwhelming and I had no clue what to do. The coroner said to me, “When we are ready to release his body, you will need to tell us where to send it.” That was when I realized, “Oh my God, I’m in charge here.” I missed Dad desperately and I felt helpless. But I’ve learned that you can do what you have to do.

Pressed but Not Crushed

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; 
struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, 
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

– 2 Corinthians 4:8-10

On Facing a Plague

“What a grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an unshaken mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! What sublimity, to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to rejoice, and to embrace the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing forth our faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the narrow way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life and faith according to His own judgment!”

– Cyprian of Carthage (200-258), De Mortalitate

Hidden with Christ

“I lost fear in the black belt [of Alabama] when I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and Resurrection, that in the only sense that really matters I am already dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”

– Jonathan Myrick Daniels (1939-1965), Seminarian and Martyr

Persevere in Prayer

“God’s timing is not ours to command. If we do not start the fire with the first strike of our match, we must try again. God does hear our prayer, but He may not answer it at the precise time we have appointed in our own minds. Instead, He will reveal Himself to our seeking hearts, though not necessarily when and where we may expect. Therefore we have a need for perseverance and steadfast determination in our life of prayer.”

– Theodore L. Cuyler, Streams in the Desert

The Solid Rock

“When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.”

– Edward Mote (1797-1874)

Hedges

“The hedges, or hindrances, are right for us or He will quickly remove them. And doesn’t it stand to reason that whatever seems to block our way may also provide for our protection?”

– Frances Ridley Havergal, Streams in the Desert

Amazing Grace

“The Lord has promised good to me;
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.”

– John Newton (1725-1807)

My Security

“Jesus Christ is not my security against the storms of life, but he is my perfect security in the storms. He has never promised me an easy passage, only a safe landing.”

– L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert