John 10:17 w For this reason the Father loves me, x because y I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 z No one takes it from me, but y I lay it down a of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and b I have authority to take it up again. c This charge I have received from my Father.”
Adam had authority over his own life, but he gave it up and sold himself into the slavery of sin. Here is Jesus, born of the Holy Spirit and Mary, who had authority over his own life, and did not sell himself into slavery to sin but submitted it to the Father. This is the ultimate explanation by his life of what “whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 10.39)
Jesus did not seek to find or save His life, but to do whatever charge He received from the Father. Laying down His life wasn’t only done on the cross one day out of 33 years, Jesus layed down His life every single day so that the Father could take over.
We’ve been talking a lot at my house about when someone wrongs someone else, it’s not so much that they have evil thoughts toward the victim, but more that they are only thinking of themselves. I also heard John Piper say recently that we are never bored if we are always looking to see what God wants us to do in a given situation. God desires to be and deserves to be the center of all of our affections. Jesus lived for the Father, and not for Himself. God was in the center of Jesus’ life, and Jesus just rotated around the Father’s will.
Exactly, its like the car deciding to drive itself out on to the highway! When we try to be in control, we just are not capable. The universe is supposed to be God centered because He only is worthy and able to run it!
When Jesus gave the divine fiat in the Garden (very significant that it was in a Garden) of, “Not my will but thine be done,” and then lived it through, the Fall was reversed.
I don’t even see the Fall through the same crime and punishment lenses I used to. More like Adam and Eve already knew pure Good. God gave them everything including face to face communion with Himself. But, they chose to add knowledge of evil through disobedience. God had warned them that knowledge included pain, suffering and death. But, they chose it anyway. I don’t see God adding those after the fact like a harsh judge, but warning in advance as a loving parent.
Then, like the grieving Father of the prodigal (and the self righteous brother), God makes all the moves, against all social rules and understanding to fix it by living amidst us in the middle of all the suffering we chose and choosing the opposite to return us to the possibility of pure good and joy by absolute surrender to the will of the Father.
There is also something I still ponder. How different is the statement, “Jesus had authority over His own life,” from “I AM The Life?”
peace