Are We Really Supposed to Follow Jesus?
I once heard a popular pastor and conference speaker say that the church needs to change the way we do evangelism.
He made the argument that while we are preaching about God’s grace that is gifted to unbelievers, we need to start telling them up front that saying yes to His grace is ultimately about following Jesus. He said that we should have them commit to following Jesus in order to become a true Christian.
Is that true?
Do we have to commit to following Jesus in order for his grace to be given to us or is it received by faith?
Or if we receive His grace by faith, is it confirmed by how well we commit to following Jesus?
And the bigger question is, “Are we really supposed to follow Jesus as Christians in the first place?”
WE BECOME CHRISTIANS BY RECEIVING GOD’S GRACE THROUGH FAITH, NOT BY FOLLOWING JESUS
In Ephesians 2:8, the apostle Paul tells us that it is by grace we are saved through faith.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
We do not become Christians because of a commitment that we make to follow Jesus. Grace is a gift. Following Jesus would mean that we are getting something by merit. We are going to do what He does, and because of that He is going to give us forgiveness and eternal life.
Salvation doesn’t come through commitment; it comes as a gift that we receive through faith or belief in Jesus.
Here’s what Jesus said to Martha in John 11:25,
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say, “Whoever believes in me AND commits to following me will live.” He said, “Whoever believes will live.”
When introducing someone to Jesus, we should not be trying to make sure they are 100% committed to following Jesus in all of His ways with their lifestyle. Instead, we are to introduce them to what He has done for them and is committed to do in them if they’ll receive Him by faith.
He will do the work of forgiving them and transforming them into a new creation. A child of God who is holy, righteous, blameless, and equipped for Him to dwell in and express Himself through.
BUT JESUS SAID TO FOLLOW HIM, RIGHT?
Jesus did say several times to several different people, “Follow me.” And we see several people doing that in the gospels. He had 12 disciples who followed Him for 3 years.
But this was before the cross. Jesus had not dealt with our sin problem. The Holy Spirit had not come yet to dwell in us so that God could work through us.
After the cross, the Spirit came. Once the Spirit came, Jesus put Himself inside of people.
The apostle Paul clearly states this in Galatians 2:20.
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
After the cross, things changed. The disciples were no longer following Jesus. Jesus was living in them and through them as they walked by faith and dependence on Him!
Paul even said this in Colossians 1:29.
29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Jesus was actively working in Paul and through Paul to manifest His Kingdom mission and values through him to the world.
So, we don’t follow Jesus the same way the disciples did while He was on earth with them. He eventually put Himself in them to express His Life through them, and He does the same thing through you and me today.
WE DON’T FOLLOW JESUS; WE DEPEND ON JESUS TO EXPRESS HIS LIFE THROUGH US
When people teach us to follow Jesus, they mean that we are supposed to imitate Him and the ways we saw Him act and behave in the gospels. This even became popular with the phrase WWJD, “What would Jesus do?” We are supposed to think about what Jesus did and then do what He did during His earthly life.
Good luck with that! That sounds a lot like the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant was about following the law. When we look at what Jesus did and how He acted and behaved and then are supposed to follow those things, they become our “law.” We go out and try to follow the rules (the things we are to imitate from His life).
Also, if Jesus is our model for living the Christian life, the life we see Him living in the gospels is a life of dependence.
Jesus talked about this in John 5:19.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
Jesus was fully God and fully human when He walked this planet. While He maintained His status as God and was fully God in every way, He made it as if it was no account.
Paul affirms this in Philippians 2:6-7.
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing.
Jesus gave up His divine prerogatives. He lived as a human being completely dependent on His Father (whom He was in union with) to work in Him and through Him.
The model Jesus set up for us was not, “Watch me and follow me by imitating what I do.”
The model was, “Watch how I allow My Father to work in me and through me. Watch how I live a life of dependence on Him.”
Why? Because this is what Jesus would do in you and through you after the cross!
Jesus becomes our Source, and then we live dependently on Him. This is how we were always created to live. We were never meant to operate independently of Him.
That’s why after sin entered the world, Jesus had to come on a rescue mission to die for us so that He could put His life in us and get back to being able to live His life through us.
CONCLUSION
We don’t have to get a dedicated commitment from unbelievers to follow Jesus as we share the good news with them. To ask and demand this means we believe it is up to us to be more like Jesus (or maybe not completely because Jesus will help us). We are afraid people are going to come to Jesus for forgiveness and then live an unholy lifestyle because they don’t commit to following Him.
But this is not what the gospel teaches us. The gospel shows us that Jesus coming to dwell in us and uniting Himself with us makes us like Him. The gospel shows us that Jesus put Himself in us to be the Source of activity through us.
Our role is to walk by faith that He has changed us and that He is the Source that will cause activity and behaviors that line up with His ways.
Don’t commit to following Jesus. Live in dependence on Jesus to express His Life through you the same way Jesus lived a life of dependence on His Father to express His Life through Him.
“The radical life Jesus lived presented a powerful revelation to the disciples and to us. He did not come just to forgive us of our sins; he also came to give us life, his own abundant life. But if he had stopped there that would not have been enough. That would be like a parent giving their child a powerful new car but not teaching them how to drive. Jesus gave us the power of God's own life, and He showed us how to use it. He demonstrated a life lived by faith, fulfilling the true purpose for which God created us. He showed us how to both experience God personally and express God relationally to the world around us.”
Frank Friedmann, Stunned by Grace
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