God be thanked for the simplicity of the gospel. The longer I live, the more I bless God that we have not received a classical gospel, nor a mathematical gospel, nor a metaphysical gospel; it is not a gospel confined to scholars and men of genius, but a poor man’s gospel, a ploughman’s gospel; for that is the kind of gospel which we can live upon and die upon – Charles H. Spurgeon.
Being a follower of Jesus is pretty simple. Note that I said “simple,” not “easy.” Simple is the opposite of complicated, a reflection of how difficult something is to understand. Easy is a statement about how difficult something is to do. Following Jesus is simple – it’s not hard to understand. But knowing and doing are two different things.
Still, before I can do what God wants me to do, I have to know what that is, so that’s why I’m writing an article on how to live as a follower of Jesus. And it is, at bottom, very simple. There are just four things we need to do, and to keep on doing.
1) Remember who you are.
2) Live on purpose.
3) Practice godliness.
4) Remember that we are at war.
Before I explain these four steps, however, I want to take a moment to make it clear that I’m writing this for people who are already believers in Christ. Living as a follower of Jesus means getting close to God, and there is no way to do that other than trusting by faith in the grace God gave us through the death and resurrection of Christ. As Jesus himself said:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:6-7).
It’s not something you or I can do. God’s word says:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
And in another place the Scripture says about Jesus that:
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:11-13).
And also:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).
That’s who I’m writing to; everyone who believes in Christ and is justified on that basis, and who also proclaims that he is Lord, and is saved (Romans 10:9-10).
Now that I’ve established that, we can move on to the four simple steps to living as a follower of Jesus.
The First Step – Remember Who You Are
I’m becoming more and more convinced that following Christ begins with remembering. Before I can live out the truth of my identity, I have to know my identity. This is something I keep coming back to in my writing, and in my own quiet times, because the reality of who I am, of who God says that I am, is staggering. In the words of the Apostle John:
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure (1 John 3:1-3).
Knowing who we are, as John affirms, can’t help but affect the way we live. Because this is a theme that I touch on so often, and that I address directly at some length in my introductory article, I don’t think I need to go into much detail about it here.
The Second Step – Live On Purpose
The second step is something that I’ve come to call living intentionally. Fundamentally, it just means that I try to spend all my waking hours actually awake. In other words, not living on autopilot, but staying aware of what I am choosing to do. The Apostle Paul wrote:
Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).
Imagine making a conscious decision to do something you know is wrong: shoplift at Walmart, gossip about a friend, cheat on your spouse, or whatever it might be. If you’re like most people you’ll have an immediate reaction against that thought. You can still go through with it if you’re determined, but a part of you, the better part, will be fighting against it. As this simple exercise illustrates, it’s easier to make right choices, and harder to make wrong ones, when we’re paying attention. And this applies even more to sins of omission, at least for me. I never find myself making a deliberate decision, for example, to spend my writing time looking at internet memes instead. When that happens, it’s because I let myself drift through my day without consciously deciding what to do.
What we want to do is live like people who are awake. As the Scripture says:
The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light (Romans 13:11-12).
This step is not focused on changing what I do, although that might happen as a result. It’s about staying aware of what I do, recognizing that I’m making choices and owning those choices. Whatever those choices are. If I’m watching old episodes of Gilligan’s Island, it’s because I made a deliberate choice to watch Gilligan’s Island. Because it’s only when I am, moment by moment, consciously deciding how I’m living my life that I can ask, “is this what I, as a son of God, really want to do right now?” It’s when I live on purpose, in other words, that remembering who I am becomes powerful.
Praying continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17), including the spiritual discipline of practicing the presence of God, also does not happen on auto-pilot. It, too, requires that I live on purpose. And, it has to be said, most of us are pretty good at not paying close attention to the decisions we make. Drifting only half-consciously for a few hours comes pretty naturally, especially when we’re tired. Living on purpose takes effort. And it takes practice, which brings us to the third step.
The Third Step – Practice Godliness
We’re all familiar with the way small children try to imitate mommy and daddy, and usually get it adorably wrong. That’s us, trying to follow Jesus. But children grow up (or, at least, they’re supposed to), and they gradually learn the skills of adult life. That’s supposed to be us too (Ephesians 4:14-15, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 2:2-3). None of us is born knowing how to live as an adult. It takes many years of growing and learning and practicing before we’re ready to live up to our full potential. Equally, no one is born again as a mature Christian. That also takes growth, and learning, and a lot of practice. It’s a basic principle of the universe that we get better at the things we practice, and following Jesus is no exception. This is simple and obvious, but how often do we use the fact that we’re not good at something as an excuse not to do it, even though we know that’s the only way to get better at it?
We read in Scripture:
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:11-14).
This is addressed to believers in Christ, and it’s a clear rebuke. These people are not being chastised for failing to understand the “elementary truths of God’s word” however, but for no longer trying to understand. They have remained immature far longer than they ought to have. And who are the ones who have matured? The ones who, by “constant use,” that is to say, by much practice, have trained themselves to make good choices; they “distinguish good from evil.” Rather than, “get it right or be condemned,” the lesson is, “keep working at it so that you will eventually get it right.”
As one example of this principle, we read that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
Notice that he says, “do your best,” not “do it flawlessly.” There is no thought here of reaching perfection in handling God’s word, only of continual study and improvement. That’s the workman who is approved and has no reason to be ashamed. Turning it around, it’s not the worker who doesn’t understand who needs to be ashamed, but the one who fails to keep working at it. And the same is true of every other aspect of living as a follower of Jesus.
Theologian Dallas Willard wrote:
Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.1
I find that the longer I live as a follower of Christ, the more I agree with this. There’s absolutely nothing in the Scriptures about earning salvation, much less earning the right to reign with Christ; that’s beyond impossible. It can only be a gift of God’s grace. But there’s a lot in the Bible about how we are to behave as a result of receiving this gift. Jesus didn’t just die to change our future; his death also changes our present reality. We have been set free from slavery to sin – including pride and selfishness – and given God’s Spirit to enable us to live up to the identity he has given us as his children.
Responding to God’s grace by obeying him is a constant theme in both the Old and the New Testaments. I did nothing to earn the inheritance I have through Christ, and I never will do anything to earn it. It can’t be earned at all. But part of my inheritance is the freedom to live the way a son and heir of God ought to live. I can’t earn it, it’s a gift. But I can use what I’ve been given to live in a way that pleases my Father. Not only can I do so, but I must! Refusing to live out the new identity God has given me makes as much sense as receiving a pardon but refusing to leave my prison cell. As much sense as if I were a freed slave who continues to work, without pay, for my old master.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13).
Paul, the author of this passage, does not tell the Philippians to work for their salvation, but to work it out. The Amplified Bible adds, parenthetically, “that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity.” Or, as I would put it, live up to the truth of who we are – children of God. And do so “with fear and trembling.” Or, from the Amplified Bible again, “using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ.” This, comes from continuing to obey the apostles’ teaching, which for us is recorded in the pages of Scripture. And the reason for doing this, as well as the power to do it, comes from the fact that God is already at work in them, and by implication in us as well, to accomplish his purpose of sanctifying his children.
These steps are all connected. I don’t practice being like Jesus when I’m living on autopilot, but when I’m living intentionally, being aware of my choices. And I intentionally make the choices that lead to growth because I remember who I am, or more specifically, who God has said that I am.
This is not intended for a few super saints, but for every believer, and more and more as they grow up. Living as a follower of Jesus means, first of all, remembering who I am. In that knowledge, I can make a deliberate effort to live out that identity, living on purpose. And I don’t expect to get it right at first, but because I know who I am, I expect that the more I practice living as a disciple of Jesus, the better at it I will get. Finally, to those three steps, we have to add one more.
The Fourth Step – Remember That We Are At War
All of these steps so far are amazingly simple. So what’s the catch? Why do we have such trouble living this out? It’s because we are at war. Before any of us became a follower of Jesus, we were his enemies (Romans 5:10), and the war did not end when we changed sides. God’s enemies are now our enemies as well – a situation that is infinitely better than being an enemy of God, granted, but they are still enemies. And not all of those enemies are human:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).
This matters because, in the words of military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, “everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult.” This might sound like a paradox, but it’s not; remember what I said earlier about simple versus easy. Clausewitz is saying that it’s easy to figure out how to effectively move armies and fight a war. It’s simple, in other words. But actually doing the things you’ve figured out that you need to do, against the opposition of a determined enemy, is hard. Following Jesus is similarly both simple and difficult. It’s easy to understand, but hard to do. It’s too difficult, in fact. On our own, we simply can’t do it. Even Jesus said as much:
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (John 15:4-8).
Apart from Christ, I’m both helpless and useless. But by remaining in him I will “bear much fruit.” Or, looking back again at Philippians 2:12-13, we’re told to:
Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Why?
For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Following Jesus, then, is both something that I have to do and something that Christ has to do in me. That’s because I’m not God’s puppet, but his son. It is God who is at work in me as I work out my salvation; as I practice godliness, in other words. And I am able to practice godliness because I pay attention to the choices I am making. I’m living on purpose. The reason I do this is that I remember who God says that I am, and I continue to practice godliness even in the face of opposition and difficulty because I remember that I am at war.
Four simple steps. You can learn them in just a few minutes. A child can learn them. But following these steps, and continuing to follow them without giving up, will lead to a lifetime of growth. Jesus never said that following him would be easy. He said it would be worth it. And so it is.
1. Willard, Dallas
2006 The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship. HarperCollins, Sydney, page 61.