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Today too, the biblical picture of following Jesus from His own teaching and example as well as that of His apostles flies in the face of teaching from many pulpits that narcissistically and falsely make Christianity all about the follower! Yes, Christ suffered, died and rose again to save me, but not so I can go off selfishly to do my own thing and only receive from Him what is in my narrow self-interest. No longer preaching the Gospel of Christ, repentance from sin and faith in Him to be saved and become His disciples, many to their destruction preach this other gospel of narcissism to attract the attention, attendance and affections of followers for themselves (Galatians 1:6-10, NKJV).
Here is God’s reality check for the preachers and professed Christians of these self-absorbed and materialistic latter days: it is not about you! It is about Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen, ascended and returning soon! Lining up behind Christ as our Savior and Lord through faith, He still expects us to follow His example in everything (John 13:12-17; 1 Peter 2:21-25). This being so, love of Christ who died for our sins is to be our deepest layer of motivation after faith and thanksgiving for following Him. And just as He modeled, we are to also be willing to go where He sends us, speak and do what He commands, forsake all, suffer and die for Him if required (Matthew 10:16-39).3
Moreover, in accord with His Father’s will, the Lord was quite intentional about giving us an exemplary display of His nature, character and demeanor we are to exhibit. Indeed, there are four distinctive characteristics of Christ His followers as aspiring strong men and great women of God in His image are to commonly exhibit I write about in my book. Like Him, we accept the roles God assigns, obey God to the death,4 rely on God for everything and trust God for vindication. Even the most casual reading of the four Gospels plainly show Christ walked out these characteristics in His life and service as a Disciple of His Father.
In His role as “the Lamb of God” in particular, He powerfully displayed all four characteristics at once! Again, moved by love for God and us He accepted this role, obeyed His Father’s will to the death, relied on Him to care for His soul in death and trusted that God would vindicate His sacrifice as He did first by raising Him from the dead to immortal glory (Isaiah 50:5-9; John 1:29; Acts 2:22-36, NKJV)! Sinful human love is incapable of reproducing Christ’s required example. No doubt, for this reason and anticipating the coming of the Holy Spirit to help, the Lord queries Peter who had denied he knew Him three times: “do you love Me,” (John 21:15-17; Romans 5:5-8, NKJV)?
The Lord’s demand to be the highest recipient of our love is not just a means to secure our sold out devotion, but also to help us keep our priorities straight with a Kingdom perspective and avoid becoming distracted and divided in heart, unfaithful, unwilling to suffer for His cause and coldly religious (Luke 9:57-62, 12:35-48; 2 Timothy 4:9-10; Revelation 2:1-7).5 Not following the Lord in sold out love and devotion causes a man to develop blind spots in his life that Satan comes by stealth and exploits to seduce him into various sins. For example, greater love for a wife or other family member can lead a man to disobey the Lord’s commanded will or allow them to take liberties that do so.
As well, absent the motive of love for Christ first it is easy to give oneself permission to mistreat others or be dishonest. If the man in these examples is in church leadership, Satan’s end game of scandal and profaning the name of Jesus in the wider world will be exponentially realized. Church history is replete with instances of such failed professed Christians to this hour many of whom for whatever all of the secondary reasons besides being impostors, fall away from Christ as foretold because they quench the Holy Spirit their source of love for Him (Matthew 24:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:19, NKJV). Only sold out love first for and faith in Christ will overcome Satan and cause a man to stand faithful and true to Him to the end (John 14:15; 1 John 5:3-5; Revelation 12:11).
Finally, if we will really line up behind Christ, it must be in accord with His written Word, interpreted and applied not as we wish, but as it is objectively understood! This is critical since God has allowed these foretold times of “testing” to be seductively filled with the purposeful deceit and falsehood of demons leading to the Antichrist as a final exam (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 1 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 3:7-11, 13:1-18, NKJV). God’s Word as it is written must be fully anchored in our hearts, loved and obeyed in order not to be deceived (Psalm 119:11, 97). Otherwise, God warns of the eternal consequence of failing His final exam--a likely prospect for the many rebel professed Christians now deceived in so many ways (Jeremiah 12:5-6; Revelation 14:9-13, 22:11).
(I will be enjoying a Labor Day rest on September 1st. The Lord willing, look for my next post on Sunday evening, September 8th. Have a great Labor Day!)
3 If a man is not willing to do these things, then, as Christ warned he cannot be His disciple since he will not line himself up behind Him in the full commitment He requires
(John 12:25-26; Galatians 2:20) or follow His example as He wills (Philippians 2:5-8, 3:7-14).
4 I urge readers who have not to read and those that have to re-read the July 14-28, 2019 posts to honestly evaluate the objections you have to what is written in light of
just these first two distinctive characteristics of Christ God wants also displayed in us. If you are a professed Christian male or female refusing to accept the roles, rank
and responsibilities God has assigned and are in fact a disobedient to the Word rebel doing Christianity your own way, are you really a biblically defined disciple of Je-
sus Christ (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 6:46; Hebrews 3:7-19)?
5 A Kingdom perspective pays attention to the will of Christ the King contained in the written Word and views all of life through that prism; staying also prophetically aware
and alert. Read the October 19, 2014 post, Sons Of The Kingdom under the category, Instruction and Out Of Step With The Times?, posted on May 5, 2019 under the
category, Bible Prophecy.
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