The Apostle Paul passed on the call and character of his life to his protégé Timothy when he wrote, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Paul exemplifies for us what it means to journey daily the three-fold path of wholly following Christ. In this post, I’ll conclude our brief description of the pathway of a disciple who is wholly following Christ in the concrete realities of life in the present.
The path for all who wholly follow the Lord Jesus is three-fold – living a submitted, singular and sacrificed life daily for others. The pattern is set by Christ himself: to suffer, to die and to rise. We are called to choose the path of wholly following, but we cannot choose it by our own strength of reason or self-determination. We are both prompted to choose this path and enabled to follow his pattern of life only by the grace and strength Christ gives to us as his followers.
We must, however, be very clear on this point. There is nothing, not a single iota of desire nor scintilla of inclination, naturally arising from our human hearts or minds that would prompt us to follow Christ wholly. From the first to the last step upon this path of self-denial, cross-bearing and following Christ the whole way to death, each step is enabled by grace through faith. Our daily following is by faith through faith just as much as our initial conversion was (Ephesians 2:8-10). Just as we began our journey by faith, so the continuation each day on the journey of wholly following after Christ can only be undertaken by faith through the power of God’s Spirit (Galatians 3:2-3).
Each step along the way is a step of faith – a step believing that Christ lives within us right now. And so, we pray each day “Live Jesus!” Wholly following after Christ is patterning our lives in the here and now after the life that Christ himself lived. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). The path Jesus walked thus becomes the pattern for our living and dying for others at this very moment in time.
We are able to “follow in his steps” only in the strength that God daily provides us to live submitted to his Word, singularly focused to do his will and ultimately sacrificed for others. It is by such wholly following after Jesus that we humans image God in the person of Christ to others. Living life in this way is the fulfillment of God’s purpose in re-creating us in Christ. In so doing, we live lives imitating Christ. In him we find our pattern; in him is our daily purpose. And ultimately, Christ’s life living through us will lead us to death for others. Laying down our life for others is the completion of a life imitating Christ. Wholly following Christ, then, is our destiny as human beings created Imago Dei.
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