Hard Gospel: COME AND LIVE WITH CHRIST!
The concept of Christianity is ‘come and die’ which is the path of the Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, but most Christians do not understand the full stretch of this concept. It may sound easy to hear: come unto me, come as you are or my joke is easy and burden light; which ever way it is put behind the coming is the difficult part, the dying. Many people accept the Christian invitation to come unto the Lord, confess their faith in Jesus, become Church members and sit in the pew every Sunday but do not know the underlying demand that requires daily answer. The implication of coming is in the dying. Jesus said, “If any man shall come after me, he shall deny himself, and take up the cross and follow me………whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it” [Matthew16:24-25].
Most prophets of old, cried upon God’s calling on their lives. They understood the real meaning of ‘come’ or answering to God’s calling. Little wonder, for example: Moses gave excuses of disabilities. “I am Moses, send another person.” I am incompetent, I have skeletons in my closet; things in me that must die before I can answer your call. I am a murderer on the list of most wanted, a runner away from Egypt; a man of slow speech. How can I come to a perfect and a holy God? Jonah attempted to run away and ended in the fish’s belly; yet he could not run from God. Even in his fugitive, God found him. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos and others – early servants of God were reluctant to come because they knew it was synonymous to dying. The message could provoke fierce hatred, persecution and death.
Jesus disciples were reluctant and indifference to answering the call of God on their lives. Apostle Peter, the fisherman turned disciple expressed resentment when Jesus asked him to come, dine and follow [John 21]. However, Thomas who was called Did’y-mus urged his follow disciples, “Let us also go that we may die with Him” [John 11:16b]. Even though Jesus knew that going back to Judea meant the risk of being stone to death by those who had made several attempts on His life but Jesus got more determined to go that He may wake from death Lazarus, His beloved friend [John 11:8,11]. No wonder the records had it that all His disciples except one died as martyr. The demands of God’s calling remain the same, even today. Until we understand this concept we can not become His disciple.
The founding fathers of Christian faith went everywhere around the world at the risk of their lives to reach the un-reached with the message of God’s love and His saving grace. Even today in our developed world and age, the nations of the world are still hostile to the message of salvation of Jesus Christ. Daily we hear reports of numerous missionaries being persecuted and murdered in attempts to taking the Gospel to the unreached. Some know that the places they were going were not as secured and saved as their domain yet they were compelled by inward desire and the compassion to preach the Gospel of God’s love to the unreached. Some answers the call not knowing the outcome and where it will take them to. In some cultures accepting Christ is likened to accepting to die; your relatives sever relations with you and ostracized you as non-existence and dead. Many of us became Christians because some people gave their lives to the Gospel and by their lives we now live. Today many men and women of God in lost direction and goal are busy struggling for titles and membership; playing “Churchanity” and religion while souls are perishing. Satan is winning battles but God wins the war.
The challenge of Jesus’ calling is not just coming but dying. We have to die to self, sin, greed, anger, ego, pride, jealousy, lust and all vices etc. We must die because our old bodies are crucified with Christ that the body of sin may be destroyed. He that is dead is freed from all carnality and fears of life. The death in Christ shall also live with Him. We should know that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized unto His death. Since Christ being raised from death dies no more and death has no dominion over Him, so also are they who died in Christ. They died with Christ once but shall live unto God for ever [Romans 6:1-10].
As we yield to Christ daily, the challenge before us is, “let us go with Him so as to die with Him.” For the dead in Christ shall rise again. We rejoice not only that Christ resurrected from dead but also that those who died in Christ shall God raise up with Him [1 Thessalonians 4:14; Psalm 135:13]. This is our hope in Christ. We have all said like Peter, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you……..Yet our speeches, actions, and thoughts deny Him and say, “I don’t know this man” [Matthew 26:35, 70]. However God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead [1 Peter 1:3-4]. Jesus resurrection marks a new dawn in the new dispensation of grace and is the greatest supernatural event in history. It must be believed to be received; that’s our life.
Reach: Evangelist Ogbonnaya, Godswill at: weefreeministries@yahoo.com or P. O. Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272.