“I accepted Jesus is my Savior, so now I can live my life without worrying about hell.” This statement misleads many nonbelievers and believers.
Jesus didn’t only come to earth to teach and show us how to live for God; he sacrificed his life and paid the judgment for our sins. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, not by our works (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is God’s gift to us. However, living out our salvation means we have pledged our mind, heart, spirit, and life to follow God’s ways and to work with Jesus daily to bring them honor and glory.
Acceptance is Not Enough
Accepting Christ Jesus as our Lord requires us to learn how to follow him and be his disciples. When Jesus chose his twelve disciples, he took three years to teach them about God’s commands, compassionate heart and character, forgiveness, mercy, and how to live their lives honoring and serving him. Jesus didn’t ask them if they believed in him and then walk off. He spent time with them every day so they would learn God’s truth and experience his love, grace, healthy boundaries, mercy, forgiveness, healing power, and overcoming death.
It’s not enough to believe in Jesus to be his true disciple. If you say you are following Christ, you must spend time with him daily by studying God’s word, praising him, and in prayer. Your attitudes, words, and actions must mirror Christ’s. The Bible instructs us to (work) out or live our salvation, which means we will live a life surrender to God and bring him glory regardless of any costs. The apostle Paul confirms our journey as Christ’s disciples in the following passage.
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (Col. 2:6-7, NLT)
Living for Jesus Will Be Hard
No one is born with the knowledge of all Scriptures. We are also not born knowing the pure love of God or his healthy love standards for living. Unfortunately, many of us have not grown up learning the foundational importance of the Bible or how to study it to live a healthy life honoring God, others, and ourselves. Only God’s morals and values can create healthy, just standards to live by.
As we look around the world, we see people in despair. We hear the disrespect, anger, and dissent from every walk of life. Unfortunately, many who profess to be Christians are not studying their Bible or living by its commands, so the world is not seeing Jesus.
Professing Christian’s attitudes, words, and actions do NOT mirror Christ’s. Many Christians have refused to stand on Biblical foundations of morals because of the persecution. Others have created fighting and dissension over issues that can’t be solved with politics and programs because they all come from sin. Without knowing and obeying God’s word to love others as they love themselves and living in all the fruits of the spirit, they are going against God’s directives and commands.
Jesus lives in us so that we can bring his compassionate love, hope, and message of salvation to the lost, hopeless, helpless, oppressed, and despaired. Christ’s disciples cannot live in their sinful desires and the sinful ways of the world and follow Jesus at the same time.
Jesus is very clear.
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Matt. 6:24, NIV)
Jesus replied, "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. (John 14:23-24, NLT)
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" (John 14:6, ESV)
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12, ESV)
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matt. 7:1-3, NIV)
Disciples of Christ, and children of God, are instructed to study and obey the word of God. We must surrender our fleshly desires and plans as we seek the will of God. We must work with Jesus daily and let him transform us into his likeness. Following Jesus will bring persecution and sometimes death.
Accepting Jesus is not just a “get-out-of-hell” free card. You are taking a life-vow to serve and honor God no matter what it costs you. You agree to commit to having a personal relationship with him daily. You pledge your trust, obedience, and spirit to him forever. I thank Jesus daily that my life pledge to him is empowered through his word and our close relationship. He helps me mature as his disciple and he can help you too.
You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. (Heb. 5:12-14, MSG)
Christ’s disciples must guard against becoming comfortable, complacent, and silent. We must spend quality time with Jesus and God daily and not think of them as a task to check off our list. Living out our faith is a continually growing journey that never ends until we are in the arms of Jesus. God’s word warns us.
Jesus says. “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven. (Matt. 10:32-33, NLT)
If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. (1 Peter 3:15-16, NLT)
God Has Equipped Us But We Must Learn How to Use His Gifts
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3, NLT)
What a blessed assurance that Jesus gave us access to his fullness, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the discernment, guidance, and power of the Holy Spirit. God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live a godly life! As Disciples of Christ, we must commit ourselves to work with Jesus and learn to live in all these gifts.
Jesus also warned us that we would have tribulation, but he has given us his power to overcome. God never lets anything go to waste; he uses everything, even the bad stuff. Scripture says.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4, ESV)
Why Choose Jesus?
Living as a disciple of Jesus is one of the most challenging yet most rewarding choices you will make. So why choose him? Without Jesus, I know I would have lost my mind and life decades ago. Experiencing his love, grace, mercy, healing, and restoration were the products of walking through my bad choices and challenges with Jesus. Jesus never left me; he was my strength and wisdom as I dealt with some heartbreaking consequences. No one can live a 100% challenge-free or pain-free life. Do you want a perfect person with unconditional love to walk with you and guide you, or do you want to trust imperfect people, which includes yourself?
My trust and faith in him come from his faithfulness in my life. He has never left me alone and has taught me so many things that I can now help others in the same dark places I traveled during my life. I know Jesus is coming back for all his disciples without a doubt because of what he has done in my mind, heart, and life. I will spend eternity in a perfect heaven with God and Jesus, which makes everything worth it all!
I choose to be his ever-learning disciple no matter what I endure in this broken world. I will keep my focus on his extraordinary love that stirs in my spirit. I’ll do my best to share Christ’s message of love and salvation, mirroring his attitudes, words, and actions. I will never get everything perfect. However, Jesus knows my heart and pledge because of our close relationship. He only asks me to follow him and give him my all.
When you choose to be a disciple of Christ and think of what it cost him, what can you pledge but your mind, heart, spirit, and life to serving and obeying him? If you say you are a Christian or Christ follower, do your attitudes, words, and actions confirm your proclamation?
Jesus tells us. "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." (John 13:35, NLT)
