John 10:17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.
To better understand verse 17, we are going to look at verse 18 as well. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
When I first read this verse I was not clear on what it was saying. I had to read it in a few different translations to realize what was being said. Then reading it in the context of everything that comes before and the verse following it helped me realize what was going on. Any time you are unclear on a verse’s meaning be sure to read the verses before and after to be sure you understand the big picture.
In the verses prior to today’s, we see Jesus speaking of being the Good Shepherd who lays His life down for the sheep. He even indicates that He will lay down His life for other sheep, meaning the Gentiles or you and me. Then we see in verses 17 and 18 that not only is He predicting His death, but is claiming He will live again. This must have seemed far fetched to the people hearing it, but we know that He did just that. He willingly died for us and rose again three days later.
If He was willing to surrender His life to save us all, the least we can do is surrender ourselves back to Him. He died for each one of us. He wants a personal relationship with you. Are you willing to surrender your sins and desires to Him and live a life worthy of Him?
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