I have been thinking about following Jesus and the way we
follow Him today as against the way those who were first referred to as
Christians followed Him such that they were called Christians. There is no
doubt that their faith and/or belief in Christ must have consumed them so much,
it altered their personalities such that they responded to situations in the
same way - the way that Christ would have responded. They were without a shadow
of doubt His disciples (a people who heard His words and obeyed such that their
obedience could not be questioned). They rubbed minds with Him to the extent
that His thoughts had become theirs. It was easy to tell that they followed
Him. Interestingly, following Jesus, even from the beginning of time, has not
been without its own challenges just as it is today. There has always been an “unhidden
cost” to following Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus admonishes whoever wants to
follow Him to count the cost of doing so. Believers in Christ today, complain
so much about the Christian life that we often sound like a people lured or
deceived into this Christianity.
Luke 14: 27b –
28 “…be my disciple … but don’t begin until you count the cost.”
Hebrews 12: 1b –
2 “And let us run with endurance the God has set before us. We do this by
keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because
of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.”
In our day, our own journey with Jesus starts with us getting
born again, a term coined to describe the process of getting born of the Spirit
of God. This birth takes place when one believes and accepts the truth that
Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God who died and rose again and then ascended
to His Father. As soon as this rebirth happens, the fullness of The God head (God
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost) take their place in the person empowering such
person to live their life according to The Spirit of God as well as enabling them
become like Jesus Christ. This experience, also facilitates the opening of one’s
spiritual eyes so that they can see Jesus (spiritual revelation) and only
thereafter can they fix their eyes on and follow Him. It is impossible for Jesus
Christ to be revealed to anyone who has not had the salvation experience
without which we cannot have on earth the life that prepares us for a great
life in eternity.
Luke 9: 23 “Then
he said to the crowd, “if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up
your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
I have come to realize, over time, that the fact that one
has a revelation of Jesus is not necessarily a guarantee that they follow Him;
they are two separate things. Revelation of Him only opens a door that facilitates
following Him which is what it takes to His disciple. Following Jesus, unlike
following anyone else does not happen randomly; it takes a deliberateness. This
is because there is a properly laid down procedure to following Him. Jesus laid
down clear steps to following Him which starts with giving up one’s own way and
daily taking up of one’s cross. Anyone not aligned with this procedure isn’t a
disciple notwithstanding the number of times they are in church. No wonder many
claim to follow Him but appear not to because they truly don’t. They meet none
of the prerequisites and have no intention of doing so. They do not intend to
give up their own way. As long as Jesus way tallies with theirs, then they
appear committed to Him, but when His way begins to differ from their preferred
path, they dump His way. It is only to the extent that we deny self that we can
carry our cross and only then can we follow Him.
Hebrews 12: 4b “let
us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily
trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Without a doubt, there is a cost to following Jesus
Christ; but there is also gain in following Him. There is a self that must be
denied and a cross to be carried daily. “Ugly” as the cross is, carrying it is
apparently the privileged of only a few; it is not given to all. To be
effective in carrying the cross, we must drop all weight and self is a major
one. The cross of Jesus Christ is “very heavy”, we don’t any other added
weight. One of the challenges of the faith we share today is the fact that self
is allowed to mix with Truth even when the scriptures tell us that the two
always are against each other. How can anyone succeed with a serious battle going
on always in their mind? Many are backsliding because it gets too heavy;
heavier than it is meant to be because the grace of God given to us can only
help us bear the burden of the cross and not our own added burden. Some of us even carry our own cross and not the
cross of Christ so that we complain consistently against Christ and have no semblance
to Him or His followers. We must begin to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling and if one finds that they have built on faulty foundation, it is
never too late to start again.
REMEMBER THAT
THE RETURN OF CHRIST IS NEARER NOW THAN WHEN WE FIRST BELIEVED
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