Come, Follow Me
Christianity is simply Jesus calling an individual to follow Him. It therefore needs to be experienced before it can be believed.
A friend of mine recently said that he just can’t get himself to believe in Christianity. God always prepares us for these conversations. All we have to do is be present.
A few days prior to this conversation, I read a chapter of The Cost of Discipleship where Dietrich Bonhoeffer expounds on the idea of Jesus calling people to follow Him. Christ calls all of us, and it is our job to answer, because “only the God-Man can call people to follow Him.”
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”1 The starting point of Christianity is Jesus calling an individual to follow Him. It is not a list of rules to be followed or an armada of dogmatic arguments to believe. It is not even love, joy, or peace, as these things come after we start following Christ. It is simply a call to a human being - a call to relationship.
Bonhoeffer lets loose the ground-breaking idea that first you must answer and obey Jesus’ call, and then you will believe - not vice versa. He says, “Only the obedient believe… unless he obeys a man cannot believe… the one thing that matters is practical obedience.”
Christianity was never meant to be believed before it was experienced.
This therefore means that the man who says he cannot believe in Jesus without walking with Him is in a dishonest position - no matter how strong his argument.
Christ called Peter to drop his nets and burn his boats and follow Him. Peter only believed in Jesus after He lost the nets, followed Christ, and witnessed His greatness for himself.
Jesus called Peter out onto the water, but only after obeying Jesus and actually stepping onto the water did Peter believe. Only when he didn’t sink into the abyss, did he put His faith in Jesus.
Peter didn’t believe before he obeyed the call. How could he? Jesus didn’t put forth a great argument to persuade Peter to follow him. He simply called Peter, and Peter answered.
Christians often make the mistake of trying to persuade people to believe, while not focusing on Jesus’ personal call to the individual. We say, “Believe this, read this, doesn’t this make sense to you!” and not “Give this a try, let’s walk this road together.” We are quick to set up laws, but when do we proclaim Christ?
This paradigm of obedience and then belief clearly shows that Jesus isn’t trying to persuade us to follow Him. He has invited us to join Him on a journey which is uncertain, dangerous, and costly, with the promise that it will lead to “life to the full.”2
Jesus doesn’t force us because He knows that after the dust has settled, after other trails have been explored and other journeys undertaken, His ways will stand supreme. We will indeed see that His journey is the only journey.
Accepting the invitation to this journey takes faith, which is shown by obedience. Jesus demands our obedience because He wants us to see for ourselves that His ways are better, and that life with Him is indeed full.
He doesn’t want us following Him solely based on theological arguments. He wants us to get our sandals on, have our bags packed, and step out the door in faith and obedience. True and lived theology will come on the journey.
It is often the case that when people say they cannot believe in Jesus, what they actually mean is that they do not want to believe in Him.
Rather than intellectually trying to persuade or corner such people into becoming Christians, we must tell them of the good that Jesus has done in our lives.
We must tell them that it is the last thing one would expect that leads to life: acceptance of Christ’s offer to friendship.
When Jesus returns, what do you think will be the basis for us going to heaven or hell? Strong arguments? Powerful theology?
To those on the road to hell, Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”3
Christianity is about answering Christ’s call for a journey, where we will get to know Him on the way.
Matthew 4:18-20
John 10:10
Matthew 7:21-23
I really found this insightful Michael.