Following Jesus

“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2)

As the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ made Himself of no reputation. He was obedient to the Father’s will. “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”(Phil 2:8-11) 

Throughout His earthly ministry He did the will of the Father. “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (Jn 5:30)

Obedience to the will of the Father is the assurance for fulfilling destiny. Followers of Christ are enjoined to emulate His exemplary life on earth.

Jesus carried out His ministry as it was written of Him. Every believer has a mandate.

Jesus endured the Cross because of the joy that was set before Him. The cross is a place of suffering, rejection, deprivation and death. Every believer in Christ Jesus has an expected end: it was written before the foundation of the world.

Jesus endured a horrible wilderness, an agonizing loneliness and a ruthless betrayer – in the person of one of His disciples – Judas. Following Jesus is a harbinger of persecutions and tribulations.

Jesus was “despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” His visage was marred beyond recognition and His form distorted beyond human endurance. Jesus suffered more than any man burdened with the sin of the world.

To know Jesus is to follow His footsteps. His commandment to His disciples is “Follow Me.” The original Apostles followed Him.

We are commanded to imitate the original Apostles because they followed Jesus.

To reign with Christ one must be prepared to carry the designated cross and suffer as He suffered. We must suffer with Him in this life before we can reign with Him in His glory.

After carrying his cross and in the midst of imprisonment for Christ’s sake, Apostle Paul wrote: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” (Phil 3:10-12)

That should be our daily prayer.