Endings (Part 3): Loving Like Jesus

As those close to me should know by now, I have recently resigned from my position at Victory Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. This post is not about that. Rather, this post is about what I want my legacy to be at VBC (or really, anywhere else that I ever teach and minister).

I am teaching through a series called "Endings" with the students over my last weeks with them. These six messages will attempt to drive home the six main things I have tried to teach them over the past fifteen months that I have spent as their student minister, and would be the six things that I would focus on more than anything if I were to remain there indefinitely. Thus, I will teach six statements that sum up everything I am about. This blog series will communicate that to whomever else would like to know my heart.

Here's the third statement: The most important thing we can do is love.

Doesn't that sound cliche? Alas, it is precisely what Matthew 22:37-40 is getting at:

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands." (HCSB)

We love God and love people. That is what Jesus called our most important task when He was asked that question. But how do we do it?

1. We love God because He first loved us (John 3:16, 1 John 4:19): God looked upon some scraggly ol' sinners and loved them anyways. That is how we even got saved: He loved us before we loved Him. In fact, we are incapable of loving Him without His first loving us.

This love that He shows us, despite our terribly sinful disposition, should bring us to an infatuation with Him. He has so showered us with love that the only proper response is to be obsessed with Him. Just read the Psalms. Read verses like 16:11, 28:7, 63:1-5, and 90:14. They overflow with a love for Him. Yet, how can we truly show that we love Him?

2. We love others because He first loved us (1 John 4:20-21): It is by loving others that we show our love for Him. There is a reason that James points out that faith without works is dead; those who have faith and love for God should love on and work for almost anyone in need. That's how we show the love we have for Him!

Furthermore, our lives are reviewed by God based on how we love others (1 Corinthians 13:2-3). How do we do that correctly? We follow the rest of 1 Corinthians 13, and we foster a love for Him and others that we never imagined possible.

 Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not envy,
is not boastful, is not conceited, 

 does not act improperly,
is not selfish, is not provoked,
and does not keep a record of wrongs. 

 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth. 

 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

 Love never ends.  

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, HCSB)

So, how are you living your life? Do you love like 1 Corinthians 13 or Luke 6:32 say we should? Do we go out of our way to show some nutzo love to people, being kind and patient and humble? Do we bear all things with them? Believe them when no one else will? Hope for them things they won't even hope for themselves? Endure the hard times with them and be the shoulder to cry on?

We are exchanged to follow Christ in love. That is the calling for believers in Jesus: we love God and love people with reckless abandon.That's all there is to it; that's how love truly wins.

Endings (Part 2): The Cost of Discipleship

As those close to me should know by now, I have recently resigned from my position at Victory Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. This post is not about that. Rather, this post is about what I want my legacy to be at VBC (or really, anywhere else that I ever teach and minister).

I am teaching through a series called "Endings" with the students over my last weeks with them. These six messages will attempt to drive home the six main things I have tried to teach them over the past fifteen months that I have spent as their student minister, and would be the six things that I would focus on more than anything if I were to remain there indefinitely. Thus, I will teach six statements that sum up everything I am about. This blog series will communicate that to whomever else would like to know my heart.

Here's the second statement: Giving up all that we have and leading others to do the same is the cost of discipleship.

My last post focused on the exchange that occurs when Christ's righteousness was given to us and He took our sinfulness upon that bloody cross, bearing the weight of God's wrath on our behalf. That's how we have a relationship with God. It is freely given, even though we don't deserve it: that's what grace is, after all. However, once we have this salvation via exchange, there is a cost. That cost is a rather significant one.

When Jesus first called the twelve original disciples, He said a simple phrase: "follow me" (Matthew 4:19). In fact, as one reads the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), it becomes clear that His call to everyone wanting the exchange, wanting the freedom that He brings, is "follow me." This remains His call to all who wish to follow Him to this day. But what does that mean? What does it mean to "follow" Jesus. Allow me to give you two quick points that I believe truly encapsulate what it means to follow Jesus.

1. Give up everything you have. That seems like a pretty intense opening point, does it not? We must give up everything? What do I truly mean by that?

I mean that we give up everything. Wealth may be where you thought first (specifically in the Western culture I am surrounded by); must that go? Perhaps. Do you have an excess that brings you to look at your goods more than Christ? Then yes, it must go.

Perhaps you are more worried about other things: freedom, family, love, success, entertainment, sports, popularity, or something else. Allow me to show you a passage that likely will wreck your understanding of what it means to be a Christian:

As they were traveling on the road someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go!”

 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”  Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

“Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”

 But He told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”

 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”

 But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” -Luke 9:57-62 (HCSB)

That's one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, if you ask me. Jesus seems pretty cold-hearted here, right? The first guy simply says he wants to follow Jesus, and our Lord said "bro, I'm homeless. You ready for that?" Then He tells another guy to skip his dad's funeral to follow Him. Finally, the last fellow that wanted to follow Jesus was told he couldn't even say goodbye to his living family. That doesn't seem fair, does it?

Yet, was the exchange fair? Did Jesus not give up everything, even His life, for our ability to live eternally? His request, in response to His own unfair bargain, is that we deem Him to be our Lord and Savior. That means we give up all that we have for His gain. We are willing to give up a life of security and pleasure (v.57-58). We are willing to follow Him, even when our personal life seems to just get worse and worse (perhaps even because of following Him!) (v. 59-60). We are even willing to follow Him away from family and friends that may not want us to go (v. 61). Luke 14:26-27 words it like this: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister--yes, and even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." You see, our devotion to and love for Jesus Christ must be so intense and all-consuming that we are willing to give up all that we have and pursue Him so passionately that our love for our loved ones (and even ourselves!) will seem to be hate in comparison.

Perhaps an illustration may help: I have a candle on my desk as I write this. It is burning with a fairly bright light. If my room were dark, then this candle would seem exceedingly bright. However, I also have a lamp on my desk, and it is considerably brighter than the candle's flame. Such should be our love for Christ and others. Our love for others should burn brightly in a dark world, making a sharp contrast with the selfish, hateful ways of the world. It should be a radiant, beautiful flame of love that warms the hearts of all that we give our affection to. However, in comparison with the burning love and passion that we have for Christ, our love for others should seem but a dim flame before a burning lamp. It is not hate for others; it is love for others with an even greater love for God.

This love and devotion, this passion that begins when the great exchange occurs in our lives and we are given new hearts with new passions and new devotions (Ezekiel 36:26-27), is what drives us to be willing to sacrifice whatever He asks of us for His glory. If that means leaving any and everything we have ever had and will have, then so be it. He is worth it. This is why we are willing to bear our own cross, taking punishment from the world (Luke 14:27) for His sake. This is why we say with Peter in Luke 18 that we have left all that we have! We have nowhere else to go but with Him!

The cost of discipleship isn't over with our own lives, however. It goes a bit further.

2. We lead others to follow Him. You see, Jesus gave up everything He had to bring us to follow Him. Now, it is our task to follow Him by bringing others along with us in this journey. No one is above His master, and the messenger does no better than the One who sent him (Luke 6:40, John 13:16). If our Teacher, Master and Sender gave up everything for the sake of bringing us along, then we give up everything for the sake of bringing others along, as well. This is why Jesus's last command to His disciples on Earth was to make disciples: bringing them to follow Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). This is our "message" (John 13:16); this is how we "fish for men" (Matthew 4:19). The only way people ever experience the exchange that we have enjoyed is by our sharing the good news with them and training them in how to follow Jesus (Romans 10:14-15).

This is the cost of being a disciple of Jesus: we give up everything for the One that exchanged our sin for His righteousness, and then we lead others to follow that same path. That is the call of a Christian. There is no alternative route; there is no other option. You are either a follower of Christ or not. This is the fork in the road; which direction will you walk?



For more about how to follow Christ, check out the Multiply Movement and Radical.net for more information. These sites and the guys that lead them are largely responsible for my own personal understanding of what the cost of discipleship truly is. I hope they can help you, as well.

Endings (Part 1): Exchanged

As those close to me should know by now, I have recently resigned from my position at Victory Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. This post is not about that. Rather, this post is about what I want my legacy to be at VBC (or really, anywhere else that I ever teach and minister).

I am teaching through a series called "Endings" with the students over my last weeks with them. These six messages will attempt to drive home the six main things I have tried to teach them over the past fifteen months that I have spent as their student minister, and would be the six things that I would focus on more than anything if I were to remain there indefinitely. Thus, I will teach six statements that sum up everything I am about. This blog series will communicate that to whomever else would like to know my heart.

Here's the first statement: We were sinners before God, and now all He sees is Jesus.

That, my friends, is the gospel. That's the Christian's "good news." We were sinners before God, and now all God sees when He looks upon us is Jesus and His perfection. Where am I getting this?

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. -2 Corinthians 5:21 (HCSB)

There's a few things of note in this verse that should rock your world.

1. He had no sin. The "One" with no sin was Jesus. He was without any blame or flaw (1 Peter 2:22), despite the fact that He was tempted in every way, just like us (Hebrews 4:15). It wasn't like the devil left Jesus alone on this Earth. Rather, he came hard at our Lord, and He maintained His holiness, innocence, and purity. He was separate from sin and exalted above all (Hebrews 7:26).

2. God made Him a sin offering. So, why does it matter whether Jesus was without sin? Who cares? Is there any reason for why He had to remain perfect and pure? Yes, as it turns out.

If one were to read the account of the first Passover (Exodus 11-12), they would see that in order for the wrath of God to be satisfied, a pure, unblemished male animal had to be sacrificed (Exodus 12:5). This would begin a long line of sacrifices that God would require of the Israelites--all involving lots of blood and killing and death of pure animals. Why was all of this necessary? As we can see in Leviticus 17:11, it is in blood that a creature's life resides, and it is by the shedding of blood that God allowed for atonement (the payment of sins) to occur. So animal after animal after animal was killed under the Old Testament law, and that was how sins were atoned for. However, God was merely foreshadowing to a greater Sacrificial Lamb.

Jesus became the Great Passover Lamb, dying upon the cross and spilling His blood for our sake. He became the ultimate sin offering, and took the wrath of God upon Himself on behalf of sinful men. Do you realize the weight of that? Jesus took the blow for our sin when He had none. He was all of those things that 1 Peter and Hebrews stated above, and yet He also, as 1 Peter continues to point out, was the sacrifice for our sins (1 Peter 2:24). He bore our sin upon the cross. Fair? No. But it was for a purpose.

3. We become the righteousness of God. This is the great exchange; this is the great news of Christianity! We were hopelessly sinful, and yet, He became sin on our behalf so that we may live in His righteousness. He essentially traded our sinfulness for His righteousness. He gave us His peanut butter and jelly for our rotten apple at the great lunchtable of life.

Take some time and look up these verses in Romans: 1:17, 2:13, 3:21, 3:24. They show our hopelessness that became the ultimate hope by receiving the righteousness of Christ. We gained His relationship with and standing before God the Father. That's ours. In fact, our relationship with God is so great that He made us His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). Doesn't that seem reckless on His part?

It should. However, this is how we must trust the righteousness that has been imputed to (put on) us. That is how we must see ourselves: as holy before God. He knows we still sin. I'll talk about that in another post. However, when it comes to our relationship and standing before Him, He sees Jesus and His sinless perfection. We cannot be removed from Him. We cannot be too sinful to read our Bible or pray. We cannot undo what Christ did. We cannot lose Him as our Father. We cannot expel the Spirit from our hearts when we mess up. We're as secure in our relationship with our God as Jesus is with the Father. That's some Trinitarian-tight bonds right there, and I am beyond thankful that I find myself amongst such a Trio. May we never doubt our relationship with our God and think we can undo the work of His offering!