30 Days of Obedience - Day 3

Matthew 26:39
"He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

John 10:17-18
"Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I received from My Father."

It is hard to grasp the depth of Christ's obedience. I fail to obey in the small everyday things, but yet He obeyed until His very death. He did it willingly, having the power to take it again through the resurrection.

loves - agapao (Strong's) - comparable to phileo, which is brotherly love. However, agapao is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety.

God's love for Christ went beyond brotherly love. Because of Christ's obedience to die on the cross for us, God loved Him. I question, "Did God not love Christ regardless of His dying on the cross?" I gather that God's love for Christ at this moment was like when a child does a good deed that has no benefit to him/herself. There is a feeling of pride & a feeling of love that swells within the parent. Could God not feel the same as we would, but even deeper because He understood the full plan of what Christ had to do? God judged what Christ was doing as a deep conveyance of love & agreed with it wholeheartedly as being what had to be done. It was a matter of principle, duty & propriety.

Another thing is that Christ was the only one who could go through with what had to be done. There was no other for our atonement. Jesus Christ went through it all for us, knowingly committing Himself to His Father's will. He knew what was going to be done to Him, and He submitted to it willingly.