Many people say they want to follow Jesus.
They want to know the work of His kindness in their lives (like healings and feedings, Jn. 6:1ff). They want to know the wisdom from His teaching. They want unconditional love, acceptance, and affirmation.
But do they want to follow Him everywhere He goes and do everything He demands? Late in His earthly ministry Jesus clearly told the Twelve (actually, He was reminding them since He’d already spoken of this reality, e.g., Mt. 17:9) where He was going: He was going to be glorified (Jn. 12:23) by dying on the cross:
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. (Jn. 12:32-33; NASB)
So, if anyone will follow Him, he will follow Him to death. I don’t necessarily mean that all Christ-followers will be martyred for their faith, though some will. But if one wants to follow Christ, he will die to sin and will live to obey Christ. He will die to self-righteousness and live by and delight in Christ’s righteousness. He will die to self-exaltation and live for Christ’s exaltation. He will die to his own desires and live for the will of Christ. He will die to being served and live to serve Christ. He will die to living wastefully and live to be fruitful for Christ.
When Jesus says, “if anyone serves Me, he must follow Me” (Jn. 12:26a), that’s what He means. Wherever Christ leads, that’s where the follower goes. Even when it means death to self.
We lose our lives on this earth in that we lose self-will and self-indulgence. We lose everything related to self.
And we gain everything related to Christ:
“He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” (Jn. 12:25; NASB)
When we follow Christ, we lose our own lives (and our sin) and we gain Christ. We trade a few years of indulging in the best that this world has to offer for an eternity of the best of what God has.
Too often Christians spend too much time talking about the cost of discipleship. There is a cost. There will be pain. There will be loss. For some, there will be death. We have reckoned on those costs. Some of us have learned all too well to “count the cost” (and say, “no thanks…”). We have weighed the costs of following Christ and determined they are weightier than anything else we know or can imagine.
But we also spend far too little time talking about the benefit of following Christ. There are many benefits to this selfless following of Jesus: fruitfulness (v. 24), eternal life (v. 25), and fellowship in the following (v. 26a).
And honor. There is honor for those who follow Christ selflessly. And the honor is from God: “if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor Him.” And note that the Father does not honor us because we are “due” the honor! This honor is indicative of the magnanimity of God, who gives us grace for all of life and then honors us for using that which He gave us to begin with!
Following and serving Christ is sacrificial and costly — and infinitely and eternally profitable. There is more value in following Christ and being honored by God than we can comprehend.
“Walk this way…..” by tvdflickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Words of Grace 