Winning Ways: Accepting and Copying the Sacrifice of Christ

Christ's sacrificial service to us is something to accept and copy. We miss the fullness of the Christian life if we ignore either of these actions.

This is what Jesus taught the night before he went to the cross. We read in John 13 that Jesus knelt down before each of his 12 men, removed their sandals, and washed their feet. You wouldn't come to the dinner table with dirty feet in that culture any more than you would come to the dinner table with dirty hands in our culture. So, washing feet was a menial but necessary task often assigned to the lowest servant in the household. In this instance, though, it was the Lord Jesus who took the towel and basin and served his men.

Afterward he asked in verse 12, "Do you understand what I have done for you?"

Well, do you?

Here's what he has done for us: He has served us in a way we must accept and copy.

First, accept the way he has served you. Jesus' act of foot-washing was a symbol of the coming cross. He dealt with dirty feet one day and with dirty souls the next day. The Holy One accepted the penalty for our unholiness to save us. "If I do not wash you," Jesus said to a reluctant Simon Peter, "you have no share with me" (verse 8). He says the same thing to us. We are accepted by God not by what we do for him but by what he has done for us in Christ.

Second, copy the way he has served you. He said in verse 14, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." How do you serve others? Through forbearance and forgiveness. Through sacrificing your time and resources to meet their needs. The Christian life is a foot-washing life in imitation of our Lord.

Join us this Sunday @ 10am as we find ways to John 13 to action.

And don't forget: After the 10 a.m. service there will be no Sunday School or Common Ground. Instead, we'll dismiss in time for you to get a lunch and bring it to our churchwide picnic at City Park! We're going to baptize some people at this event, so let me know if you're ready to take this step of Christian obedience. Find out more at HillcrestAustin.org/OutdoorBaptism.

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