We are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So, how should our salvation change the way we live now, in this world?

To answer this question, Jesus did something that shocked His disciples. He, their Teacher, their Lord, the One they had come to believe was the Messiah, the anointed ruler sent from God, wrapped a towel around Himself and washed their feet. He performed for them the service usually assigned to the lowest servant in a household. He was explaining in the most dramatic way possible that the first would become last, so that the last could become first.

And that’s the way He calls all those who trust in Him to live. For He has made it clear that if we would follow Him, we must wash one another’s feet, to get our clothes and hands dirty trying to clean up the mess that others’ sin has caused. We must put others first, considering them more important than ourselves. This sort of self-sacrificial, unconditional love is the only true love that exists.

But humbling ourselves before others is also the best way to humble ourselves before Christ. If we receive those He sends, we receive Him. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that those who give food or drink or clothes or a welcome or a visit to the least of His brothers and sisters have blessed Him in the same way. If we express our love for other Christians through humble service, that’s also the way we express our love for Christ.

But make no mistake – none of this makes any sense to the self-centered people who resist Christ’s kingdom. Those who focus their lives on the acquisition of material things, those who devote themselves to pleasure, those who think the purpose of life is to make themselves happy regardless of the suffering they bring into other people’s lives – to them, all this talk of self-sacrifice and service is just nonsense. It’s no wonder that such people despise and reject the followers of Christ.

But here is the greatest mystery of all – Jesus died for all of us while we were still such selfish sinners. The firstborn Son of God, the ruler of the Universe, made Himself last. The perfectly holy, spotless Lamb of God died so that unworthy sinners, so that rebels against His righteous rule, so that those who despised and rejected and abandoned Him might live. And no matter what opposition we face, Jesus calls us to do the same thing – that is, if we really want to follow Him. Will we deny ourselves and take up our cross today?

John 13:12–20 (ESV)

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”