SURRENDERED TO THE SAVIOR

It was the early 1700’s, when a young aristocrat named Nikolas Zinzendorf viewed a painting by Domenico Feti called “Ecce Homo” (“Behold the Man”). He read the words beneath, “I have done this for you; what have you done for me?” As his gaze was transfixed on the painting, his heart was transformed by the message. He committed his life to Christ and started a great missions movement, which still has an impact today.

Over a century later, a young lady, Frances Havergal, saw the same picture with similar effect. Having the heart of a poet, her expression of gratitude became a hymn that still challenges us today,

“I gave my life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;
I gave, I gave my life for thee,
What hast thou given for me?”

That is the point Paul presents in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

“I have done this for you; what have you done for me?”