I am currently rereading Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage in preparation for some premarital counseling. It’s a great book; if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.

But this post is about one of my favorite Lewis quotes that I had nearly forgotten, but Keller reminded me of tonight.

Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory,

“For the Eternal Word also gives Himself in sacrifice; and that not only on Calvary. For when He was crucified He did that in the wild weather of His outlying provinces what He had done at home in glory and gladness.'”

When Jesus laid down his own interests to serve others in love, he did what he had been doing eternally.

Keller writes, “…from all eternity, each person – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – has glorified, honored, and loved the other two. So there is an ‘other-orientation’ within the very being of God. When Jesus went to the cross, he was simply acting on character.”

Moreover, when Jesus calls us to sacrificial “consider others as better than ourselves,” choosing to honor and serve the other, he is asking us to do what he has been doing from eternity.