The ultimate function of the Royal Family honor code is reached when one member of the Royal Family risks or sacrifices his life for the benefit of another. Here the law of supreme sacrifice reaches its peak. When a believer living in the Royal Family honor code is called on to put his life on the line for a fellow believer, he does so under one of two basic concepts. One is sacrificing himself for someone he personally loves, such as a spouse, child, or friend; the other is making the sacrifice based on impersonal love from integrity in the soul. Both concepts are a part of the Royal Family honor code. In the night before He died, the Lord Jesus Christ taught this to His apostles.

JOH 15:12-13 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

 

In his first epistle John reaffirms this principle, 1JO 3:16.

 

1JO 3:16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

                It is only in the system of thinking found in the Royal Family honor code that dying actually becomes a part of living. Even while facing death, the believer can still function under the honor code, just as he did all his life. Dying is the greatest challenge to the application of doctrine in the believer’s life, but it is also the greatest phase of life for the mature believer. As he continues to experience the “greater grace” of JAM 4:6, the mature believer will find that God saves the best for last.

 

PHI 1:20-21*According to my intense concentration and resultant hope that in nothing shall I be disgraced, but in integrity, even now as always, Christ shall be exalted in my person, whether by living or by dying. For me, living is Christ, and dying is advantage.