How to Become a "Follower"

I’ve noticed that I seem to have quite a few “followers” lately; new people that have stumbled onto my blog, and were interested enough to click the “follow” button. My first reaction was one of satisfaction, thinking “Yeah! Somebody’s actually reading this!”
But lately, I’ve been thinking. I claim to be a “follower” of Jesus Christ—a Christian. And one of the big parts of being a Christian is following the commands of Christ. One of the biggest commands that He gave—right before He left Earth—was the “go and make disciples of all nations”. To my mind, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t give the good news of Christ to everyone who reads this—especially as we approach the Easter season. I mean, what better time to tell you, right?
So let me lay it out, from the beginning, in as unfussy language as I can.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. That’s not a religious tradition from before we knew about evolution; that is a fact. God said, and there it was—no billions of years, no cosmic egg, and certainly no aliens conducting a science experiment.
When God created this Earth, everything was perfect. I don’t just mean nice—I mean perfect. Imagine the best utopia ever, and it even topped that.
But we messed up. We deliberately looked at the tempting shininess of sin, glanced over what our perfect and holy God told us, and chose the sin. We thumbed our nose at God, and all of Creation paid the price. Ever since, we’ve been living in a world where death, decay, perversion and injustice rule. And we have only ourselves to blame.
God is perfect. God is so above perfection that it boggles the mind to think about. He is so holy and sacred and righteous that He cannot abide sin. It’s an affront to His nature, and it must be eradicated.
Well, that poses a problem for us, right? I mean, face it: we are sinful. I am sinful, you are sinful…Don’t believe me? Here, then: think about this.
Good people would keep the Ten Commandments, right? You know—do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness against your neighbor; that sort of thing.
Have you ever killed someone?
Well, of course not, Trav! Who do you think I am?
Jesus said that if you hate your brother in your heart, it’s the same as murder: Have you ever hated someone?
Um…well, yeah…
OK, let’s move on. Have you ever stolen anything—even something really small and insignificant?
Well, yeah. Everyone has…
Ok—what about the false witness part? Have you ever lied?
Um…probably…
Then by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving murderer! Certainly not good enough to get into Heaven with God.
Now that’s a bit harsh…I mean, I do a lot of good things too—that’s got to count for something, right?
Not at all. See, God doesn’t weigh your good against your bad and see which one comes out heavier. One single act of wrongdoing is enough to separate you from His holiness for eternity. The very first time you did something wrong, it was all over. No second chances.
And this, my friends, is why you must listen to this good news: you have no chance otherwise! You are doomed to spend eternity separated from God in that place that most of us don’t like to talk about: Hell. Sorry, but it’s a real place, set aside for a real Satan and His followers.
But here’s the beauty of the whole thing!
For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would have eternal life! Not eternal death—eternal life!
God knew that there was nothing we could do to fix things between ourselves and Him. No amount of sacrifices, no amount of good deeds, no amount of confessions or rites or ceremonies could bring us into a right relationship with Him.
So He did it for us.
He didn’t have to—he would have been within His rights to just let us die in our sin and face the punishment for it, and He would have been no less God for doing so. But in His love and mercy, He put on flesh and came to live the perfect life that we could never live.
Jesus lived a perfect life. He never lied or cheated or stole or dishonored God in any way. And they killed Him for it.
That is, to be perfectly honest…We killed him. You and I are the guilty party here. People always want to pin Jesus’ death on the Jews, or on the Romans, but it was really our fault. He was dying in our place, for our sins.
He took the punishment I deserved—He paid the full price for every single bad thing I’ve ever done or said and ever will do or say. He died for me.
And it didn’t stop there.
That would have been enough, you’d think—that He paid for all my sins; that He took my punishment, my sentence, my penalty. But He did more: He even conquered death itself.
Three days after He was murdered, three days after He took upon himself all of my dirt and filth and wrongness…He rose again.
Now, I know that’s somewhat religious language. What in the world is that supposed to mean, Trav? Well, to put it bluntly, He didn’t stay dead.
He died—He didn’t just swoon or pass out, or anything like that. He actually died, but you can’t forget here that He was still God.
Death couldn’t hold Him! He came back to life on that third day, and He was seen by hundreds of people. Jesus, in one fell blow, defeated sin and death and Hell. He saved my life, He saved my soul, and He is able to do the same for anyone else.
This all sounds a bit outrageous by today’s “rational” standards, doesn’t it? God coming to Earth and walking among man? Dying? And don’t forget the coming back to life part—it sounds more like the plot of some fairy tale than actual fact. But that’s exactly what it is: fact.
He came for you. He died for you. And He conquered death, for you. The Bible says that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” If God makes Himself known to you, and you realize just what He’s done; and you believe that His grace applies to you, you will become part of His family. And nothing—absolutely nothing—can take you away from Him.
Please, if you have questions; if I haven’t explained this well or if you want to know more, leave a comment. I would be thrilled to answer any questions.
This Easter, look past the bunny rabbits and the egg hunts and the candy baskets, and find out the real explanation behind the holiday. Find out about the God who is utterly perfect beyond anything you can imagine, but who chose to show mercy to sin-fouled people like us. You will never make better use of your time, I can guarantee it.
~Trav