Christ’s Voluntary Sacrifice
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. -John 10:17-18
Even though Judas betrayed Jesus, and a gang of men took Him away to be crucified, it was all done according to God’s plan, and of Christ’s own free will. He is, after all, God in the flesh, and as the above verse states, He has power to lay His own life down, and power to take it up again.
No where was this so clearly displayed than at the very time of Jesus’ arrest. When a band of armed men came upon Him by night in order to deliver Him up to death, we see an interested happening:
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. -John 18:3-6
The God (now incarnate) who spoke the very world into existence, and lights every man that comes into the world gave a small hint at His authority and power over all earthly situations. As soon as He answered the men that came to arrest Him, they all fell down backward: perhaps like a bunch of bowling pins being bowled over by the force of the bowling ball.
Yet, there was no physical explanation that we see here in the text other than the word of the Lord. He simply spoke, and they were all toppled over—backward—a testimony against them and their stubborn hatred. For had they truly done Him service and worship as the eternal King that He was, they ought rather to have voluntarily bowed their knees to Him.
As Christ willingly offered up His life for a ransom of many, so too ought we to offer up our own lives to Christ: voluntarily and out of love for His sacrifice.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:5-11
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