LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Others, Not Himself
"He saved others; let him save himself... If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" (Luke 23:35, 37).
The governors of Israel and Roman soldiers mocked Jesus with these cruel and hateful words. They had heard about his supposed condition of a Savior. They had heard of his prodigies and how he had forgiven the sins of men. Now they wanted to see him save himself from death.
But this was not to be so for them.
If Jesus had saved himself from death, he would not have saved anyone. To save others and to save himself were two inconceivable and incompatible things. Jesus did not come to live, but to die. If he had not died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and God’s will was that His life would bear much fruit. The grain of wheat had to die; it was the necessary condition for its multiplication.
The poisonous phrase found in the governors’ mouth was also the indication of a greater, glorious truth. “He saved others,” they said truthfully. But wrongfully stated the second phrase.
Many a times, Satan and the people would incite Jesus to do things for his own benefit. Satan often does the same to the followers of Jesus. They barely pronounce a syllable and everything turns in their favor, the cross is avoided, the crowd applauds, and the life is saved.
But Christ did no such thing.
To have saved himself equaled retracting, taking back, his complete message; to have forgotten man in his fall; to fall under the will of the devil and the world. To have saved himself would have been a worst disgrace than the fall of Adam.
But Jesus made no attempt to save himself from death. And by his death, many are saved today and will be tomorrow.