Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)
Jesus invited all to come and apprentice Him – no matter who they were or what they had done. He still does. “Follow me” is His call – which entails walking as He walked, talking as He talked, doing as He did through His power and for His glory. It has never been simply a verbal assent, or a raising of a hand or a walking an aisle. Rather it is desirous of changed hearts and actions our Lord is looking for. We were once one way and now we are totally another and the difference was Him. Will we mess up? Yup. Does He forgive. Yup. And you get up and keep walking with Him.
Transformation of a life never happens by mere chance or happenstance rather a disciplined life of seeking to walk as Jesus walked throughout His sojourn on earth. This is only accomplished through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit Who resides in every believer. Flesh will fail us here. The Spirit illumines God’s Word to us empowering and equipping us to apply it to our lives, interceding for us through our prayers and strengthening us in our Scripture memory.
Followers of Jesus were never meant to stay the same – wallowing in the gutters of life or looking down our haughty “better than thou” noses at others. Choosing to live in the dark in lieu of coming into the light for fear their deeds would be exposed. And this transformation does not just miraculously happen either. We are to take our eyes off of ourself and place them on the Master. Christ came not only to cure our “small” scars but our gapping wounds as well. Nothing is too hard for Him. It is pride not to come when called – faith is obedience to His still small voice. It does us well to remember that only One thing stands between us and the outer darkness of sin and depravity – and that is the Lord Jesus. All of us are hopeless apart from Him and we are never more in danger when we think we are safe to do the detestable in God’s sight. We are safe when we feel our weaknesses, and do not depend on our own strength (which is really no strength at all) and lean hard upon the Lord Jesus. Those who walk humbly with the Lord walk safely.
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”John 3:19-21 (NIV)