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What Jesus Did

A few months ago while in class a professor of mine went off on a tangent. I must confess that I love it when seminary professors go off on tangents in class. Not that seminary is boring, it just that tangents can get really interesting. The professors are often showing their true interests and pet peeves on those occasions. Anyway, he went off on a short diatribe on the saying “What would Jesus do,” and the bracelets that go along with them. The bottom line of his diatribe was this, “‘What Would Jesus Do’ is perfectly fine, as long as there is a robust understanding of what Jesus did.”

My professor’s point was very similar to the point that our brother Derrick made in his sermon on Sunday when he said that every other religion in the world describes salvation in terms of what we must do, whereas Christianity describes salvation in terms of what Jesus has done. As Derrick succinctly put it, every other religion spells salvation in two letters: “D-O,” do. While Christianity, and Christianity alone, spells salvation in four letters: “D-O-N-E.”

It is because of what Jesus has done for us that we are moved and compelled to live for him. It is because of his saving mercy and grace toward us, and God’s gift of faith to us, and God’s preparation of good works for us, that we are compelled to do something for God. Our good works for God have nothing to do with our salvation, but they do reveal to the world that we are saved. The faith in our hearts ought never to be concealed from the public view. We should do what Jesus would do, but that’s all because of what he has done for us and for our salvation.

And what has he done? The great hymn, “My Song is Love Unknown” by Samuel Crossman tells the story of what he has done. Here are verses 2 and 3 of this gem:

He came from his blest throne salvation to bestow;
but men made strange, and none the longed for Christ would know:
But O! my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need His life did spend.

They rise and needs will have my dear Lord made away;
a murderer they saved, The Prince of life they slay,
Yet steadfast He to suffering goes, that He His foes from thence might free.

Now, notice the author’s response, and what should be our response to the work that Jesus has done for us in verse 7:

Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine;
never was love, dear King! Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.

Remember that we always do for Jesus because of what Jesus has done for us.