SUCH AMAZING
RESURRECTION LOVE
“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay
down my life that I may take it up again. No one
takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority
to take it up again. This charge I have received from
my Father.” (John 10:17–18)
Why does Jesus say this? Why does he stress his willingness
to die? Because if it weren’t true—if his death were
forced on him, if it weren’t free, if his heart weren’t really
in it—then a big question mark would be put over his love
for us.
The depth of his love is in its freedom. If he didn’t die
for us willingly—if he didn’t choose the suffering and
embrace it—then how deep is his love, really? So he stresses
it. He makes it explicit. It comes out of me, not out of circumstances,
not out of pressure, but out of what I really long
to do.
Jesus is stressing to us that his love for us is free. He
seems to hear some enemy slander saying, “Jesus doesn’t
really love you. He’s a mercenary. He’s in it for some other
reason than love. He’s under some kind of constraint
or external compulsion. He doesn’t really want to die for
you. He’s just got himself somehow into this job and has to
submit to the forces controlling him.” Jesus seems to hear
something like that, or anticipate it. And he responds,
“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority
to take it up again.” So he is pressing this on us to see if
we will believe his protest of love, or if we will believe the
opposite—that his heart is really not in this.
Anybody who makes a statement like that is either
mentally deranged, or lying, or God. I have authority from
inside death, as a dead man, to take life back again, when I
please. Now what’s the point here? Well, which is harder:
to control when you die, or to give yourself life again once
you are dead? Which is harder: to say, “I lay my life down
on my own initiative”? Or to say, “I will take my life back
again after I am dead”?
The answer is obvious. And that’s the point. If Jesus
could—and did—take his life back again from the dead,
then he was free indeed. If he controlled when he came out
of the grave, he certainly controlled when he went into the
grave.
So here’s the point. The resurrection of Jesus is given to
us as the confirmation or evidence that he was indeed free
in laying down his life. And so the resurrection is Christ’s
testimony to the freedom of his love.
The Meaning of the Resurrection Day (Easter)
Of all the great things that Easter means, it also means
this: it is a mighty “I meant it!” behind Christ’s death. I
meant it! I was free. You see how free I am? You see how
much power and authority I have? I was able to avoid it. I
have power to take up my life out of the grave. And could
I not, then, have devastated my enemies and escaped the
cross?
My resurrection is a shout over my love for my sheep:
It was free! It was free! I chose it. I embraced it. I was not
caught. I was not cornered. Nothing can constrain me to
do what I do not choose to do. I had power to take my life
from death. And I have taken my life from death. How
much more, then, could I have kept my life from death!
I am alive to show you that I really loved you. I freely
loved you. Nobody forced me to it. And I am now alive to
spend eternity loving you with omnipotent resurrection
love forever and ever.
Come to me, all you sinners who need a Savior. And I
will forgive you and accept you and love you with all my
heart forevermore.
- Love to the uttermost (DEVOTIONAL READINGS FOR HOLY WEEK FROM JOHN PIPER)
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