Introduction
A new creation! I'm Malcolm Cox. Welcome to this series on ‘A new creation’.
The whole premise of this series is that God is loving us into spiritual character growth. The inspiration for that spiritual character is Jesus. We are being transformed into his likeness.
2 Corinthians 3.18
“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”
How does this happen? A key aspect is following Jesus, living as a disciple. Following Jesus changes us, and those changes help us follow him. Today, some thoughts on the cost of not following Jesus.
The Cost of Not Following
For some disciples the cost of not following Jesus was too high. Consider what happened when Jesus made this outrageous statement:
John 6.56 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”
The consequences were dramatic; however, a few had a different perspective:
John 6.66-69 - “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.””
QUESTION: What motivated Peter and the others to stick around when the majority left?
Conclusion
As far as Peter was concerned, he acknowledged it was hard following Jesus, but now he knew him, and who he truly was, and what he offered, there was no one else worth following.
Why not take some time today to thank Father God for sending to earth the one person worthy of our total loyalty and devotion?
As Dallas Willard wrote in “The Spirit of the Disciplines”,
”The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity it is but as the fulfilment of the highest human possibilities and as life on the highest plane.”Next time, we will look at learning how to follow Jesus.
Your brother, Malcolm
Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.
Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, or practical? Could you send me your questions or suggestions? Here’s the email: malcolm@malcolmcox.org.
If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God Grows His People”, sign up at my website: http://www.malcolmcox.org.
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"Carpe Diem" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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