Not a Martyr

Quote of the Day:

“Now I want to repudiate the statement that He (Jesus) died as a martyr: People say He laid down certain principles that finally took him to the cross; that the cross was an accident, He couldn’t help it, and He died as a martyr to His principles. Not a word of truth in it! Christ never died as a martyr, and the Bible doesn’t say it anywhere. He laid His life down voluntarily. Do you want proof of it? Hear His own words: 
     ‘I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.’ Jesus Christ could have gone up on the other side of the cross just as well as this side. The law had no claim on Him. If He had broken the law, He would have had to die for His own sin, but He was a Lamb without spot or without blemish, and He died as our substitute voluntarily. That is the teaching of Jesus Christ.” Dwight Lyman Moody, The D.L. Moody Collection, p.318-319.

     “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 
     "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:11-18