Interesting Perspective on a Double Negative

In Standard English, two negatives are understood to resolve to a positive. "Do not put nothing here," must mean, "please put something here."

Interesting!

When applied as Mission, Jesus style, this is an interesting perspective.  My pastor said something last Sunday that has been in my mind all week:

"Jesus defeated death by dying."

To which someone replied: "That's a double negative, so it makes a positive!"  

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  JOHN 3:16

God knew that people could never completely rebuild the relationship that had been broken through disobedience, resulting in death.  Before sin entered the world, there was no death.  God Himself, Jesus, stepped into the brokenness, modeled life connected to the source of life, and sacrificed his life so that our relationship could be reestablished. Jesus made the way for life by dying!

“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 up again. This command I have received from My Father.” JOHN 10:17-18

Jesus, fully God and fully Man, lays his life down for the good of humankind. In his own words, we hear: "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself."  Jesus calls those who have received His gift to do the same...to pay it forward, not because we have to - - because now we want to.  Our free will begins to reorient towards the good of another.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.  MARK 8:35

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  GALATIANS 5:13-15

Following Jesus' example, the Lord calls us to live our lives for the good of others.  Will we live selfishly for ourselves, or discover that by living in obedience to the source of life, we actually we find life?

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.  1 TIMOTHY 6:18-19

Ann Voskamp says: "God is always good, and I am always loved."  God is always FOR US!  He calls us in the same way to always be for the good of another. 

We live in the tension between serving God and serving self.  When we set our selfish ambitions aside and truly love the one in front of us, we are serving with the heart of the creator.  No one can "make" me do this, but in response to the great love that has been shown me, I lay it down myself.  His word tells us that this is the way life was intended.

...take hold of the life that is truly life!