December 4

Self-Sacrifice

The rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ. — Luke 23:35

It was because He would save others that He could not save Himself. The soldier in the battle cannot save himself and save his country. The mother cannot spare herself and save her child. Jesus could have saved Himself; but what would have been the fate of sinners?

Three little children wandered from home one afternoon. Evening found them playing by the sea-shore. It grew suddenly dark and cold, and they could not return. In the morning they were found, the two youngest sleeping warm and safe under covering of garments and sea-weeds, and little Mary, the elder, lying cold and dead, with her arms yet full of sea-weeds. She had taken off nearly all her own warm clothing to cover the younger children, and then carried grass and sea-weeds to pile upon them, until she died in her loving devotion. She did not save herself, because she would save the little ones entrusted to her care.

During a plague in Marseilles, the physicians decided that nothing could be done to save the people unless a victim could be dissected, and the nature of the disease thus learned. But who would do such a perilous work? One physician arose and said he would do it. Saying his farewell to his family he entered the hospital, made the dissection, wrote out the results, and in a few hours was dead. But now the physicians could treat the disease, and the plague was stayed.

These incidents illustrate Christ’s devotion to death for sinners. Sinful men could not be saved unless some one could suffer and die in their place, and Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for sins. In one sense He could have saved Himself, but then the world would have been lost. His death was voluntary. He gave His life for the sheep. We are saved because He saved not Himself.