Jesus Christ our Master is our ultimate model. The utmost desire and goal of every true Christian is to become like Christ His Master. One of the major things we can learn from Jesus is sacrifice. He left His throne in heaven, came down to the corrupt world, and subjected himself to it. He left His glory and took on the most humble position among men, born in a manger, laid in a stable, spat on, and died a cursed dead. All of these, He did not for himself but that the lost humanity can be reconciled to God. The wrath of God that was meant for the whole world was on Him on the cross of Calvary. This is the sacrifice and the price He paid for our salvation.
The church has been given the ministry of reconciliation, reconciling the world to God. The church is occupying the space of Jesus for the time being. For the church to succeed like her Master, she must live like her Master. The standard principle laid down by Jesus is in John 12:24-25 which says:
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
To succeed in God’s call upon our life as individual Christians and Christian communities, we must learn the act of sacrifice. To be a genuine Christian, particularly a minister of the gospel is to lay down one's life and take on all that is of Christ. It is to surrender all including one’s life to Christ. Christ withheld nothing and we can't do otherwise.
The mystery behind this principle is that until Christians lay down their life for the cause of the gospel nothing truly or spectacular happens. Note Jesus’ words “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it will produce many seeds.” Christ has to die before He could save, and give birth to spiritual children. You must put down the flesh before you can reasonably be used by the Holy Spirit for true and significant spiritual achievement. So long you are living for your desires and pleasures, all you can bear is yourself. But when you die and surrender to Christ, He will live through you and bear spiritual fruit. We have to be ready to suffer for the gospel. We must consider even our lives worth nothing compared to the gospel and then sacrifice our lives for the cause of the gospel.
This basic principle of life does not only apply to spirituality but to nature as well. In life generally, it takes a price to make significant achievements. For instance, a woman has to put her life on the line for nine months and take the risk of labor before life can be gotten. When a woman is under stage her chances for survival are 50/50. Usually, the higher the price, the higher the gain.
The success of the apostolic church is tied to this principle. They saw practically how their Master laid down His life and they did likewise. They laid down their life for the gospel to survive the threat of the Jewish leaders and Roman authorities who did all they could to stop the gospel. The church fathers in their effort to preserve the scripture and spread the gospel to the end of the earth also sacrificed everything for the gospel. People like Father Polycarp and John Hush were even burned alive for the gospel.
Unfortunately, this cannot be said of the contemporary church. Our perspective of Christianity is quite different from this scriptural laid-down rule. Conversely, we are taught that Christianity is a life to self. And so Christianity today is centered on self; self-glorification and self-promotion. Christian faith is no longer God-centred but man-centered and not heavenly-minded but earth-bounded. It is all about what we can get or make out of it, material gain, healing, and charismatic experience that toggle our emotions, etc. Little wonder the church has lost its voice before the world and is stripped of the power to make any dramatic move like the early church.
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