Luke 9:23 ESV
“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”
Faith in Jesus Christ is not just words we say. It is not a
one-time decision to believe in Jesus which guarantees us heaven when we die
regardless of how we live our lives while we still live on the earth. Faith in
Jesus Christ is authored and perfected by Jesus Christ, it is from God, it is
gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own selves. It is not of our own
doing. So we don’t get to decide what that faith looks like.
Also, faith means to be persuaded, and we can’t even come to
faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e.
unless he first persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness and of our
sinfulness and of our need to repent of (turn away from) our sins to follow him
in obedience. For we are not born again of the will of man but of the will of
God. And so our lives are going to align with God’s will and purpose.
Now Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must
deny himself. He must disavow the flesh. He must humble himself before the Lord
in true repentance. And he must now die daily to sin and to self and follow Jesus
in obedience. For this is what it means to believe in Jesus. It is putting the
word of God into daily practice in our lives. It is being crucified with Christ
in death to sin and being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him.
[Hebrews 12:1-2; John 6:44; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 6:1-23]
Luke 9:24-25 ESV
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
Now what this is saying is that if we hold on to our old
lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. We
will die in our sins. We will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. But if we lose
our lives for the sake of Christ, i.e. if we die with him to sin and live to
him and to his righteousness, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.
So if you hold on to this life, and you gain the whole world, you will forfeit
the life that could have been yours in Christ if only you had surrendered your
all to Jesus Christ.
Luke 9:26 ESV
“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
We are ashamed of Christ and his words when we reject them
in favor of our own way of thinking. Or when we reject them in favor of an
altered and diluted gospel message which does not require death to sin and
walking in obedience to our Lord Jesus. We can’t make up our own gospel. And we
should not pull Scriptures out of their context to make them say what the
Scriptures do not teach. But many are doing that today.
One day Jesus is going to return for his bride and take us
to be with him for eternity. But only those DOING the will of God will enter
into the kingdom of heaven. All those who give lip service only but who are
still walking in sin and not in righteousness, and not in obedience to the
Lord, will not inherit eternal life with God for they refused to obey the Lord.
So, we need to take this seriously.
By
Annie Herring
There's a stirring deep within me
Could it be my time has come
When I'll see my gracious savior face to face when all is done
Is that his voice I am hearing?
'Come away, my precious one'
Is he calling me?
Is he calling me?
I will rise up, rise up
And bow down
And lay my crown
At his wounded feet
Is that His voice I am hearing?
'Come away, my precious one'
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