Paid In Full: An In-depth Look at the Defining Moments of Christ's Passion (36 page)

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to help you do the will of God, just as He empowered Jesus to do God’s will during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Every frailty and insufficiency of the human condition is counteracted by the wisdom and all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit. He will lead and guide you into all truth and show you things to come. And by the strength of His might within you, the Holy Spirit will enable you to do whatever the will of God requires of you.

Think about the specific areas in your life and the different ways in which you need to ask for and yield to the help of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 35:
Copy Every Stroke
of the Master

For even hereunto were ye called:

because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example,

that ye should follow in his steps.

— 1 Peter 2:21

Now that you’ve walked with Jesus through His most trying moments during His final hours on earth, you should know that the Holy Spirit is waiting to walk with you through
your
most trying experiences. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead wants to give you the wisdom you need and to strengthen your spirit, soul, and body for whatever you must face along the way in your own journey through life.

So what’s the next step? When it’s time to put down this book and face the challenges of the coming days, how do you effectively apply what you’ve learned about Jesus to your own life?

Let me begin to answer those questions by taking you back for a moment to my first-grade classroom. How well I remember learning to write in the first grade! I carefully studied how my teacher wrote the letters of the alphabet on the blackboard. When she was done, it was our turn to take our lead pencils in hand to copy what she’d written.

With all my might, I’d press down with my pencil onto the paper of my Indian Chief tablet. I pushed so hard writing those letters that I formed a callous on my finger I still have to this day! I gave 100 percent of my concentration to exactly duplicating every letter my teacher had written on that blackboard. Day after day, I’d write those letters over and over and over again, filling my tablet with pages of writing until I finally mastered each letter of the alphabet. It took concentration and commitment, but in time I learned to write those letters exactly as my teacher had shown me.

I’m sure you, too, can remember when you first learned to write. But did you know that this is precisely the idea the apostle Peter had in mind when he told the early believers, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21)? Let me explain what I mean.

When Peter wrote these words to early believers, they were suffering terribly for their faith at the hands of the Roman government. For them, there was no legal recourse. They were suffering unjustly, and there was nothing they could do legally to defend themselves. God’s Word commanded them to respect, submit to, and pray for the very government that was harassing and killing them. To the believers who were facing this plight of unjust treatment, Peter said this: “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

The word “suffered” in this verse comes from the Greek word
pascho
, meaning
to suffer.
It’s the word used to describe the
passion
or
suffering
of Jesus when He died on the Cross. You now have a deeper sense of all that this word entails after reading in earlier chapters about Jesus’ suffering in His final hours. However, there are many other examples of the word pascho in the New Testament, and they all carry the idea of
suffering, undergoing hardship, being ill-treated
, or
experiencing adversity
.

The truth is, Jesus experienced a measure of suffering throughout His entire life on this earth. When He was a child, His family suffered as they fled from the murderous plots of King Herod. Later Jesus suffered at the hands of religious leaders who hated Him and continually leveled false accusations against Him. Jesus had to constantly put up with the immature behavior of His disciples as He tried to teach them and set an example for them.

Then as we have seen, Jesus suffered betrayal at the hands of one of His associates, Judas Iscariot. His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane was so intense that His sweat was as great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And in the end, Jesus suffered the worst suffering of all — death on the Cross. Yet through it all, Jesus lived above the suffering and maintained an attitude of love toward those who treated Him unjustly.

Peter reminded his readers of Jesus’ suffering, hardship, and ill treatment in order to draw the early believers closer to the Lord in the midst of what they were experiencing themselves. At that time, they desperately needed to know how to respond to unjust situations they could not change. Since no one was better at dealing with such challenges than Jesus, Peter reminded his readers (and us) that “…Christ suffered for us, leaving us an
example
….”

Now we return to the picture of a child learning to write the letters of the alphabet. When Peter chose to use the word “example” in this verse, he reached into the world of early education and borrowed the word
hupogrammos.
This is a word that paints a picture of a schoolchild who carefully watches his teacher write the letters of the alphabet. Then that child painstakingly copies each letter, matching it as closely as possible to the original letters written by his teacher.

If you remember your childhood as well as I remember mine, I’m sure it isn’t too hard for you to remember straining to see exactly how the teacher wrote each letter and then trying to copy every stroke. You leaned over your desk, pressing down on your tablet with your pencil, focusing intensely on copying each letter perfectly.

This is exactly the picture Peter has in mind when he tells you to follow the “example” of Jesus. Since Jesus is your Teacher and Master, you must focus on your spiritual blackboard — the Word of God — to learn from Him and then reproduce His example in your own life.

You must learn:

• How the Master dealt with unfair criticism so you can respond like Him when you are unfairly criticized.
  
• How Jesus responded to attacks that were waged against Him so you can know how to respond in His strength to attacks that come against you.
  
• How Jesus responded to people when they failed or betrayed Him so you can respond the same way when people disappoint or hurt you.
  
• How Jesus carried Himself with grace and dignity even in the midst of unspeakable abuse, so you can then draw on His strength to walk through difficult situations with the same grace and dignity.
  
• How He forgave His accusers every step of the way so you can freely forgive those who mistreat or malign you.
  

You cannot avoid the fact that you will sometimes face unpleasant situations in which you feel mistreated, abused, or discriminated against. As long as you live in a world where the devil operates and unsaved people have their way, evil and injustice will touch your life from time to time. So when you find yourself subjected to a situation that seems unfair and unjust, you must ask,
How does God expect me to respond?

Of course, you should pray for God to change a difficult situation. Prayer can make a huge difference in any circumstance. But what if the situation doesn’t change as quickly as you wish? How should you respond? For example:

• If your employer treats you badly for no obvious reason and the situation goes on for a long time, what should you do? Of course, you could go find another job. But what if you
  know
  that your current job is where God wants you and that you’re not to leave it? How should you respond to the foul treatment you are receiving from your superior?
  
• If fellow employees are out to hurt you, to undercut you, or to see you demoted, what course of action should you take? Perhaps you’ve taken steps to befriend them, but nothing seems to improve the situation. How should you respond to the unfair treatment you’re experiencing?
  
• Maybe you feel persecuted by fellow students who don’t share your faith in Christ and who dislike your personal convictions. You know you can’t quit school as a reaction to this difficult situation. But exactly how
  does
  God expect you to respond?
  
• Perhaps your family members are hostile to you because they don’t understand your faith or they don’t agree with the direction you’re taking in life. How should you respond to your loved ones? It’s so very important that you know how to respond when your family doesn’t agree or support what you are doing — especially when you
  know
  the Holy Spirit is the One leading you to take that course of direction.
  

Certainly you must do everything possible to resolve conflicts with friends and family and to protect yourself and your reputation spiritually and legally. Yet sometimes things happen that are beyond your control, that are not so easily resolved, and for which there is no easy recourse. Whenever you’re feeling maligned and mistreated, remember that it’s a prime opportunity for the devil to tempt you to become bitter, angry, hard-hearted, and resentful of those who have treated you unjustly. If you yield to that temptation, your wrong response won’t do anything to improve your situation, but it
will
produce negative consequences in your own life.

That’s why you must absolutely refuse to allow the devil to sow into your heart those negative emotions that bear only bad fruit. Harboring such emotions is
never
the answer, no matter what situation you might be facing in life. Having read the preceding chapters, you already know that to be true.

I believe you’ve gained new insight into Jesus’ journey of pain, betrayal, and disappointment that consumed His final hours. Now I encourage you to take some time to consider His great love for you and the power He has made available to you by laying down His own life that you might know eternal life. Perhaps in a deeper way than you’ve ever done before, invite Jesus to walk with you through your own journey, guiding you by His Spirit through each difficulty and challenge that arises along the way.

It’s very important that you know
exactly
how God expects you to respond when you find yourself in a difficult predicament you have no ability to change — and there’s no better example to emulate than Jesus. So go to the Gospels and begin to read those pages with the heart of a student who studies and endeavors to copy every stroke of his teacher’s pen. Seek to extract truth and specific answers for your life and the situations you’re facing right now. Observe how Jesus conducted Himself in similar circumstances. Then like a child learning to write, make your best effort to copy each stroke of the Master.

You probably won’t get it exactly right the first time, but don’t give up. Just like the student who is learning to write, you must commit yourself to try and try again until you have finally mastered each stroke and have learned to successfully respond to difficult situations as Jesus did when He walked the earth.

Perhaps you’ve been praying for guidance, trying to understand how to deal with the conflicts you’ve encountered. Now you know that the answers you need are found in the life of Jesus. He is your Chief Example, your Teacher, your Master — the One you are called to copy. So in addition to praying for wisdom and guidance, it’s time for you to open your Bible and start reading all four Gospels to see what Jesus did in the same kind of situations you’re facing. Learn from the life of the Master, and walk through your situation in the same manner Jesus walked through His most difficult challenges.

Learn from the life of the Master, and walk through your situation in the same manner Jesus walked through His most difficult challenges.

As we’ve seen, no one was ever more mistreated than Jesus. Yet when soldiers spat on Him, when Pilate ordered Him to be scourged, when religious leaders laughed at Him, and even when He was betrayed by one of His own disciples — Jesus continued to walk in love, forgiving them all. He is our Example, showing us how we should respond when we face injustice, when someone offends or hurts us, or when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances beyond our control.

Are you facing difficult times? Are you being accused of things you didn’t do or blamed for things of which you have no knowledge? Are you being mistreated or discriminated against? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this is the moment for you to turn your eyes to the blackboard — God’s Word — and study each stroke of the Master. Once you see what He did and how He responded in situations similar to yours, it is then your task to copy Him. If you’ll take this approach to the challenges you’re facing right now that seem so distressing, you’ll begin to see those situations as opportunities to become more like Jesus.