For Millions and for Me

By: Commissioner Kelly Igleheart

Awake, arise, lift up your voice, let Easter music swell;

Rejoice in Christ, again rejoice and on His praises dwell.

Oh, with what gladness and surprise the saints their Savior greet;

Nor will they trust their ears and eyes but His hands and feet,

Those hands of liberal love indeed in infinite degree,

Those feet still free to move and bleed For millions and for me. — Christopher Smart

The Easter edition of The Southern Spirit comes to us as a welcome assurance that Jesus was, Jesus is, and Jesus is to come! In December, Salvationists around the world celebrated His birth, the Incarnate Christ who came to us from His rightful place with the Father. Through Scripture, we have tracked His life on earth from boyhood to the Last Supper and Gethsemane.

On Good Friday, we recall the crucifixion who Melito of Sardis describes: "And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say…He who suspended the earth is suspended, he who fixed the heavens is fixed, he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood; the Master is outraged; God is murdered."

Like the centurion guards, all of humanity exclaims, "Surely He was the Son of God!"

Read again the poem of Christopher Smart. "For millions and for me" radiates within my heart and unites our souls to the fact that it was Resurrection Sunday that made the Good News of eternity with our Lord within reach for us all. "Within reach" assumes our willingness and our response to His liberal love to all humanity and to ME.

If our God is anything, He is a personal God. He desires to know you and me intimately. The Apostle Paul declared, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself to me."

For Paul, the relationship with the risen Savior was personal. He had encountered Jesus in Acts 9 on his way to Damascus when Jesus called him by name. At the point of Paul's interruption with Jesus, His relationship with the Messiah became inseparable, lasting into eternity. The Galatians 2:20 exclamation by Paul rightfully describes the life that all Salvationists yearn for now. Our response to the cross of Christ and the power of His resurrection demands full surrender and an "all in" life lived for Him. A personal response to His great love and work done for all of us, that we recall and celebrate at Easter time.

I notice that in my neighborhood, even the earth has begun to awake from its winter slumber. The daffodils are in full bloom, the trees are budding, and the grass is a bright shade of green. The windows are down in my car and the sense of rebirth is in the air. Winter has now passed us by and springtime has emerged. I pray that this Easter season has burst forth within your heart and that you are experiencing a full life as intended by our Lord. As certain as we are that Good Friday gave way to Resurrection Sunday, we can be certain that a life fully dedicated to our Almighty King is a life pleasing unto Him and I life well lived to His glory.