By Jim Mettenbrink
In order to be faithful to Jesus, the Christian must sacrifice much. To some, if not many or most, that is just too much. But Jesus gave His lifeblood for the forgiveness of the sins of each one of us. He was willing to die a cruel and unjust death because He loves each of us! A love which promises eternal life for the faithful Christians. In past articles we have considered the sacrifice necessary to put God first in our life, to truly love Him.
On the Sunday before His crucifixion, Jesus told several of His disciples, “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates (rejects, jm) his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25). The sacrifice to be a faithful Christian can be great, even unthinkable to many, if not most folks. On another occasion, regarding the sacrifice, He said, “…whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). Since we live in a world drenched obsessively in material achievement and satisfaction every waking moment, the thought of giving it up to glorify Jesus is nearly unthinkable. Yes we are a rich people.
Recently it was said, people who live at the poverty level in the USA live better than the middle classes in Europe. Then there are the tele-evangelists who foist the deception that faithfulness to God results in earthly prosperity – health and wealth gospel. In view of their message, if we just read the book of Acts, we would conclude one of two things: (1) such tele-evangelists are lying charlatans or, (2) God miserably failed the apostle Paul.
The apostle Paul is the supreme example of sacrifice to glorify Jesus in his own life. He gave up his prestigious position in the Jewish society (Acts 9:1-2; 22:4-5; Galatians 1:13-14). This implies he also had a certain wealth and relative ease in his life. His conversion was radical – from zealous Pharisee to zealous Christian. The transformation – from wanting to kill Christians to save everybody from hell and show them the way to heaven. Immediately, he got a taste of what his life would become. He went to the synagogue to present the gospel to his fellow Jews, who immediately they sought to kill him (Acts 9:20-23). After 30 years, he wrote to Timothy, his beloved evangelist, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Huh? No prosperity gospel?
Earlier, Paul summarized about the first 20 years of the persecution he endured – “…I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
The Lord gave John the instruction to write letters to seven churches in Asia province. Regarding faithfulness, to the church at Laodicea, he wrote, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). That’s quite a sacrifice, but not compared to the one Jesus made to save you – He left heaven, put on human flesh to endure the penalty of your sins by dying on the cross, so you would not spend eternity in an unthinkable and unending torment in hell.