Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Onus On Us

UV 2206/10000 Onus On Us
For every man shall bear his own burden.
Galatians 6 v 5

Jesus took the burden of sin of the entire world as well as each and every individual upon His shoulders on the cross. He overcame the consequence of sin – death by overcoming death in the grave. At the point of dying on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished,” implying that all that He had set out to do had been accomplished. Now it is up to mankind to respond. The uni-verse talks about our response to the acts of Jesus and our responsibility to be and do our best. Having been set free from the consequences of “hamartia” or shortcoming or sin, how then should we live? The onus is on us to take responsibility for our lives and what we do with all aspects of our lives.
The Message Bible translates this uni-verse as “ Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best that you can with your own life.” But the manger leader or manager’s life is no longer his own but belongs to Jesus. While a slave owner is to own a slave to make him do what he wills or wishes, Jesus does not own us in this way. He does not even own us the way a boss owns his staff or subordinates for he owns these to get the work done. A businessman owns his team in order to make profits. He does not own us as a general of an army owns his soldiers for the soldiers are owned to fight and die if needed while fighting. Jesus owns us to enable us to live for eternity and to live abundantly while on earth. Jesus owns us in order to free us to be at our creative best or the way the Creator created us to be. The word “ joy” implies “ Jesus owns you.” Jesus owns us not to harm us but to give us hope and a future.

The uni-verse also means that while Jesus takes away the load of guilt from our hearts and lives, He gives us a share of His own burden for the world that all be saved by grace through faith. This is the “lighter yoke” that He talked about. The implication for our practical day to day lives is that this uni-verse teaches us to be calm not fearful, not worried or anxious, not guilty about the past or anxious about the future or stressed about the present. It teaches us to be compassionate- not selfish but caring for the earthly well being as well as eternal salvation of all humans. It teaches us to be creative in handling all our responsibilities for Jesus was and is absolutely creative in dealing with common human problems- when the master of the banquet had no wine, He changed the water into wine. When the disciples were catching neither fish nor men, He directed them to cast the net in the right place to catch a net that was bursting with fish. When some persons were dead, He said they were sleeping and that He would wake them up. When there was not enough to feed the multitude, He multiplied the few loaves and fish to feed them. The uni-verse also teaches us to be courageous as we personally know the One who holds our future in His hands.

Prateep V Philip

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