This Life is NOT about Ourselves (9th Feb 2014)

This Life is NOT about Ourselves

Follow Christ is the theme of our beloved Church for 2014 and I trust that you have given a thought to it and seek to work it out in your life in a deeper way. So what does it really mean to follow Christ? Does the Gospel account leave us in any doubt as how we can do so? In the early part of the Gospel accounts, we have examples on the calling of the Apostles when Jesus ask them to Follow Him and they left their vocations and serve Christ (Matthew 4:19; Luke 5:27). 

We need to note that implicit in their action were their trust in the words and the person of Christ. This trust led them to the action of turning their back on what they were doing up to the point when they were called, be it Tax Collector or Fisherman, and instead followed Christ and served him during the three short years of his earthly ministry and continue into the early church, in proclaiming the good news of salvation that is by faith in Christ. The trouble is that the Saviour is no longer physically with us today and besides not all of us are called be Ministers of the Gospel you may say, and so how then can we follow Christ? Lets first seek to know what it means to Believe in the Lord Jesus.

To start with, believing or trusting in the Saviour means not just abstractly relying on him and his words, it leads to one receiving the gift of eternal life (John 3:36). Having an abiding faith in Christ also leads us to obedience. In other words faith and obedience are two side of the coin that relate us to Christ. The emphasis on obedience by the testimony of John the Baptist in John 3:36 can be seen from word “believeth not” which can also be translated as “disobedience”. In the words of one commentator, our Saviour Jesus “confronts sinners with the inivtation and the demand to trust and obey” and the rejection of it leads to death and having the wrath of God continues in them!

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

This is indeed so, if we individually esteem Christ to be the Saviour, who can save us from our sin, we will therefore do what ever he bids us to do just as the Apostles did as we learned earlier!

Now, the question is whether there is a definitive statement from the Scriptures on the corrollary action of attaching ourself to Christ as his Disciple? If so, what then are the steps or action? In fact, we can learn this principle of new life in Luke 9:23 and other parallel accounts of the Gospel. In Luke 9 Verse 23, it is clear that this action applies to all individually and NOT to the 12 Apostles alone, it is universal and without exception, applying to all who trust in Christ to escape the wrath of God.

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Firstly, lets seeks to understand what Jesus meant when he said “If any man will come after me”? The phrase “To come after” means the desire to attach oneself to Jesus as his disciple. This means trusting and therefore attaching ourself to Christ as his Disciples, one needs to do three things as he mentioned in Luke 9:23, namely;

Firstly, we need to bid farewell to self, not part or some but our full sinful self. This is logical and a natural action of a Sinner-servant reconciled to God the King. This bring us to the Garden of Eden, prior to Adam and Eve upsuring of God's Authority over their lives, where we are to discharge the Creation mandate. It means now also that having dethrone self, renounce our selfish agenda we invite Christ to the throne of our life as our Lord and Master and therefore follow his will for our life, no matter what. This thoughts are echoed in Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:10; the parable of the Pound and the likes.

This then bring us to the second step, namely, we have to carry one's baggage, namely our alloted Cross on a daily basis. What is this Cross then? What does the figure of the Cross mean? This Roman Cross to our saviour means suffering and death for the sake of the Elect, for those whom he came to save. For us, where we are each alloted a Cross and we need to bear it on a daily basis. But what does our alloted Cross means? We are perhaps to familiar with the word and because of our indwelling sin has watered down the meaning of the Cross. In the words of one commentator, “It is a mistake to call our suffering a cross. The wicked have many sorrows but no crosses. The Cross is that suffering alone which results from our faithful connection with Christ (Luke 6:22)”. Bearing one's Cross means suffering for the Gospel sake and not the suffering due to sickness, the fallen world or our sinful self. Bearing one's Cross also means that we are also willing to lay down our earhtly life for the Gospel sake, just like our Saviour did for us. In the words of RC Lenski, one can picture an overwhelming scene consisting of each disciple bearing his or her alloted Cross “follow in one immense procession after Christ like men who are being led to be crucified”.

Finally, the third and final step is to to proceed with the journey in following Christ, meaning steadfast attachment to Christ cause all the days of our life. We know that by ourself and our own strength we can't do the three steps. We have the assurance that we can follow Christ because we are his Sheeps and therefore will hear the Master's voice and follow him (Jn 10:27,28;12:26). This brings us to the title of this short pastoral voice. 

Does the title “This Life is not about ourselves” still sounds unpalatable to you on initial glance? Isn't it true that we have to trust and obey Christ? To be his disciple, in attaching to him in an abiding faith relationship, we have to dethrone self and enthrone Christ and carry our alloted Cross all the days of our life. This means that this Life we have in Christ is not about ouselves, not about our family, not about our weath and reputation but about the Kingdom of God and that we are part of the great procession of pilgrims bearing our alloted cross through out the ages “like men who are being led to be crucified”.

Are we or are we not?

Amen.