Following Jesus

                   There are hundreds of religious figures throughout history, coming from all nations.  By far, the most influential person who has lived is Jesus Christ.  Jesus’s ministry only lasted a few short years, and yet He has impacted the world in a massive way.  Jesus claimed to be God, and said to lose one’s own life for Him would be better than gaining the whole world and rejecting Him.  Most people are certainly not willing to give up even a small percentage of their life to Him, yet He said, we must give be willing to lose even our lives for Him.  People must either accept Jesus as the God of all creation or another fool.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell” (Lewis 1959, 52).  If He is to be accepted as what He claimed to be—God of the universe and Savior of all mankind, then everyone ought to listen to what He said and obey Him.  To come to Jesus, one must be willing to lose everything on earth, to gain eternal life and even God Himself; but if one does not obey Jesus, then the consequence is experiencing God’s wrath eternally.

            Jesus has made it very clear as to what He requires of His followers.  Jesus wants people to love Him more than anything else in life.  All obedience to Christ comes from delighting in Jesus as the greatest treasure (John 14:21 NASB).  Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).  Our love for the Lord Jesus should be so much greater than our love for anyone else, that it should seem like we hate anyone else in comparison.  “By adding ‘more than me’, it is plain that he permits us to love, but not more than we love Him” (Just 2003, 240). 

            Jesus also said that we must go to war against personal sins (Mark 9:43-47).  Fighting and hating sin flows from love for God.  This battle is essential if someone wants to follow Christ; because Jesus said, “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go in hell” (Matt. 5:30). 

            There is indeed a cost for following Christ.  Jesus said, “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28).  If somebody wants to be a follower of Christ, they have to give their entire life over to God—this is a “death to self”.  “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (John 12:25).  A “death to self” is absolutely necessary, and it will only happen when a person becomes so overwhelmed by God’s glory that everything else fades in comparison.  Following Jesus is only for someone “who is ready to go contrary to his natural inclinations and desires in his life here on earth, to wound, grieve, deny, crucify, mortify self in repentance and sanctification” (Lenski 1942, 864).

            Something else that goes along with following Christ is persecution.  If someone wants to follow Jesus, then they must be willing to receive persecution that comes in many forms—it is inevitable.  Jesus told His disciples, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).  So following Jesus means one could potentially lose everything in life (money, status, relationships etc.) and even become murdered.

            The cost of following Jesus may be considered great, but the cost of not following Jesus is infinitely greater.  Although losing everything that is considered valuable is hard, and getting tortured and killed is a terrifying thought, it is not nearly as horrible as coming “face to face” with a wrathful God.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “They must not fear men.  Men can do them no harm, for the power of men ceases with the death of the body.  But they must overcome the fear of death with the fear of God.  The danger lies not in the judgment of men, but in the judgment of God, not in the death of the body but in the eternal destruction of body and soul” (Bonhoeffer 1959, 218).  The damnation that happens as a result of turning down the grace of God is massive.  Jesus said of Judas (the one who betrayed Christ), “It would be good for that man if he had not been born” (Mark 14:21).  To die without Christ means, one must then experience the eternal wrath of God.  Jesus said, speaking of unbelievers, “Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).  Jesus compares God’s wrath with fire, probably because fire inflicts extraordinary pain; but this fire goes on forever without end. 

            The biggest cost of rejecting the Savior is not just experiencing His wrath.  The worst part of not following Jesus is missing out on the greatest blessing of the gospel—gaining God.  To stand before Jesus Christ when He is in all His splendor and glory, with His holy angels, and hear Him say “depart from me”, would be worse than anything.  Knowing that God is the most beautiful, majestic, glorious and amazing being; and to not spend eternity with Him would be more painful than anything else.  John Piper wrote, “The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ” (Piper 2005, 11).

            Jesus has made it very clear as to what a person needs to do to be His follower, and that there will be a cost.  If people truly “count the cost”, then they would realize that the cost of following Christ is very small compared to what has to be paid apart from Christ.  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).  Following Jesus is either a fool’s way, or the most magnificent adventure that could ever happen or be imagined.

REFERENCE LIST

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1959. The cost of Discipleship. New York, NY: Rockefeller Center.

Just, Arthur J. 2003. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scrpiture: Volume 3 Luke.                       Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.    

Lenski, R.C. 1942. The Interpretation of ST. John’s Gospel. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg                     Publishing House.  

Lewis, C.S. 1952. Mere Christianity. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Piper, John. 2005. God is the Gospel. Wheaton, IL: Crossway books.

Psalm 97

             Psalm 97 starts out with a declaration, “The Lord reigns…” (v. 1).  This is the theme of Psalm 97.  This particular Psalm is an Enthronement Psalm, and so it is about the Lord’s power, dominion, and glory.  It is similar to Psalm 96, because they both are about God’s rule, and praising Him. Psalm 97 is in correspondence with Psalms 93, 95-99.  These Psalms all declare that the Lord reigns. These Psalms all act as an answer to the question that arose in Psalm 89—namely, does the Lord reign?  The reason why this question was asked is because of the seemingly failed Davidic Covenant.  Jerusalem was trampled underfoot in 587BC.  So the question comes out: does the Lord reign?

 The first six verses are devoted to this fact: The Lord reigns!  Verse two states, “[c]louds and thick darkness surround Him”.  The Hebrew word for darkness here is Araphel.  It means gloom, and often symbolizes the ignorance of sinful men.  The fact that clouds and thick darkness surround God means that we cannot comprehend all of who God is.  We are not able to understand fully His ways.  However, one thing is sure—“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne” (v. 2).   We can take comfort in the fact that everything God does is good; and righteous; and just. 

For the Lord to have absolute sovereignty and power means that nothing in all creation can stand against Him. His adversaries will not be able endure the fire that comes from the presence of God (v. 3).  If Satan, demons, and the entire created host that dares to overthrow the throne of God encounters the fire of the Lord’s wrath, they will be burnt up.  God has absolute power over every single one of His enemies.  In verse five it says, “[t]he mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord”.  If even the mountains, as immovable and massive as they are, melt before God, then what hope does a man have who stubbornly makes a stand against the authority of God.

The fact that the Lord reigns does not just mean dread for the ungodly, it is also a reason to praise Him. There is another theme in Psalm 97, and it has to do with our response to God’s reign.  Verse one says, “let the earth rejoice; Let the many islands be glad”.  God’s sovereignty is the grounds of the command for the whole earth to rejoice and be glad.  The theme of rejoicing and gladness is also found in verses 8, 11, and 12.  The first command to rejoice and be glad found in verse one, is addressed to all the nations.  In all times, in every place, whether Jew or Gentile, everyone is commanded to rejoice and be glad in the Lord.  The Lord’s reign is the reason to rejoice, because everything we have in life is a gift that flows from His limitless power, and His gracious hand.  Verses 2-6 explain God’s power and dominion—which is the grounds for rejoicing.  

In verse seven, immediately after mentioning the Lord’s glory, the psalmist addresses the idols and false gods of gentile nations.  Verse seven says, “[l]et all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boast themselves of idols”.  In light of how powerful and amazing Yahweh is, people who worship idols ought to be ashamed.  God is so omnipotent that the psalmist even says, “[w]orship Him, all you gods” (v. 7).  God is far greater than anything, and He triumphs over everything that is set up to be a god.  A good example of God’s power over lesser gods is found in 1 Samuel 5:1-4.  The Philistines capture the ark of God and place it beside their statue of Dagon.  The next morning they found that “Dagon had fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord” (1 Samuel 5:3).  So they put the statue of Dagon back in its place. The next morning, Dagon had once again fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord, but this time the “head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off” (1 Samuel 5:4).  Yahweh is indeed mightier than any so called god.  I wonder if there is anything in our lives that we are exalting above God.  We ought to examine ourselves to see if there are any idols in our lives.  Is there is anything that is capturing the affections of our hearts more than Jesus Christ? 

            In verse eight the psalmist turns the reader’s attention to the relationship between God and His covenant people.  During the time this Psalm was written it certainly referred to the Israelites that had faith in their God.  Now this timeless Psalm can be applied to anyone that has faith in Jesus Christ.  Verse nine again declares God’s sovereignty.  Then in verse ten we “who love the Lord” are exhorted to “[hate] evil”.  If we love God then we are going to hate the things that God hates.  God hates evil, so naturally we will grow in our hatred of evil as we grow in our love for the Lord.  Growing in our hatred of sin is a part of sanctification.  However, this is no easy task, because there are sinful desires that come from inside of us and “wage war against our soul” (1 Peter 2:11).  Praise the Lord that He “preserves the souls of His godly ones” (v. 10).  Finally this Psalm ends with the psalmist commanding us to “give thanks to His holy name” (v. 12).  As people redeemed by God, we have so much to be thankful for.  If we were to die without Christ then we would lose everything.  We would be eternally separated from the most beautiful, glorious, and powerful being; and we would miss out on the amazing adventure of eternal life.  Praise God for His salvation!