Lent Devotion

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:21-24

Submission is one word that the world hates to hear because it’s not the way of the world. The world looks out for no one but itself. It asserts its power and dominance over and against all those who stand in its way because it sees submission as nothing but a sign of great weakness, powerlessness, and inferiority.

But this is not true for us who have been called by the cross of Christ! For we do not see submission as a shameful sign of inferiority, but as an act of love that we have been graciously called to serve in our stations in life. Whether we are husbands or wives, sons or daughters, workers or students, we willingly submit our freedom to care for those in need.

We learn such willing and self-sacrificial submission from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who left for us an example to follow when “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). Christ’s willing self-sacrifice for us on the cross not only secured our forgiveness and salvation from the old evil foe, but also placed us on the path of becoming more Christlike, “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. [For] By his wounds you have been healed.”

Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You for Your dear Son, who submitted Himself to You by bearing our sins in His body on the tree of the cross. We pray that You may ever direct our eyes to the cross in submission to You and one another, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(Rob Ricard, Sem IV)