Greater Love No Man Has Than This
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 (NASB)
This is a very famous scripture that foreshadows the sacrifice of the Messiah. This verse follows immediately after Jesus tells His followers to love each other as He has loved them. I wonder when He was dying on that cross if some of the disciples remembered this and trembled. “Was He really telling us to be willing to die for each other, I mean, to die like THAT?” was most certainly a question that came up prior to His resurrection. Their fear and confusion must have been unbearable.
Let’s remember now one of the prophesies of the Messiah:
"The LORD said to me, 'They have spoken well. 'I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Deut 18:17-18
Moses was used as a deliverer for the Hebrews from their physical bondage. Yahweh used Moses to lead His people out of a literal pagan nation where they were literally slaves. Yeshua came to show all mankind the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus came to call His people out of Babylon and paganism and to lead us into all Truth. There is another parallel that I seldom hear made between Yeshua and Moses. Take a look here in Exodus. The following verse comes after Yahweh gave the Law to Moses then the people “rose up to play”. Yahweh is prepared to wipe the entire race out when Moses says:
"But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!" Exodus 32:32
This is an incredible sentence, brothers and sisters. Moses knew of the Book of Life and He knew it was already written and complete. Moses also knew that his name could be blotted out and he laid down his eternal life in order to save the people. Isn’t it amazing and sobering to acknowledge that while Yahweh did not require Moses’ eternal life to save the people, Christ really did lay His eternal life down for us. Let us live out our days acknowledging the greatest love of all, that the Messiah laid down His life for His people and that His shed blood allows us to become His people and have a chance to not get our names blotted out of the book!
