Luke 9:59-62 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Yesterday I wrote about the difference between a reason and an excuse. Today I want us to see the difference between being saved and being a disciple or follower of Christ. Many times we get the two confused. You cannot be saved by trying to follow Christ, or by keeping His commands. Far too many people are deceived by their good works, they are trying to follow Christ’s commands without knowing Christ! They are good moral people doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
We are living the “self-righteous” life if we are trying to please God by doing good.
Once we have been saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ, however, we are then to live a life of following the Lord. In our passage for today, Jesus is calling people to follow Him. Some willingly follow while others come up with excuses to not follow. The first man says, that he needs to go and bury his father, the implication is that his father is not dead, but he will be someday. The next person says, they will follow, BUT, let me say farewell to my family. Jesus tells him to not look back, but forward.
We have all our excuses lined up for not following Christ as we should. It could be earthly relationships, careers, our plans for the future, or we do have a desire to follow, just not right now. Following Christ after we a born again isn’t a suggestion, but a command. Will we still go to heaven if we don’t follow the Lord? Yes we will. However, we lose the opportunity for sweet fellowship that comes as we live in His will.
Let’s set all of our excuses aside today and simply trust God! Determine to follow Jesus with no strings attached and see Him do great things with our lives! No turning back.