Followers of the Cross: by Andrew Murray

 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13

Here our Lord revealed to us the inconceivable love that moved Him to die for us. And now, under the influence and in the power of that love dwelling in us, comes the message: “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Nothing less is expected of us than a Christlike life and a Christlike love, proving itself in all our fellowship with our fellow believers.

The cross of Christ is the measure by which we know how much Christ loves us. That cross is also the measure of the love that we owe to the believers around us. Only as the love of Christ on the cross possesses our hearts will we be able to love others. Our fellowship in the cross of Christ is to manifest itself in our sacrifice of love, not only to Christ, but also to all who belong to Him.

The life to which John calls us is something entirely supernatural and divine. Only the faith of Christ Himself living in us can enable us to accept this great command in the assurance that Christ Himself will work it out in us. It is He who calls us: 

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” Matthew 16:24

Nothing less than this—a faith that our “old man” (Romans 6:6), our flesh, has been crucified with Christ, so that we no longer need to sin—nothing less than this can enable us to say,

“We love His commandments; this commandment, too, is not grievous.” 1 John 5:3

But for such fellowship and conformity to the death of Christ, nothing will be effective except the daily, unbroken abiding in Christ Jesus that He has promised us. By the Holy Spirit revealing and glorifying Christ in us, we may trust Christ Himself to live out His life in us. He who proved His love on the cross of Calvary, He alone can enable us to say in truth, “He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Only as the great truth of the indwelling Christ obtains a place in the faith of the church that it does not have now, will the Christlike love for other believers become the mark of true Christianity, by which all men will know that we are Christ’s disciples. (See John 13:35.) This is what will bring the world to believe that God has loved us even as He loved Christ. (See John 17:23.)