The Call of Christ
To be called to follow Christ is a high
honor; higher indeed than any honor men can bestow upon each other.
Were all the nations of the earth to unite
in one great federation and call a man to head that federation, that man would
be honored above any other man that ever lived. Yet
the humblest man who heeds the call to follow Christ has an honor far above
such a man; for the nations of the earth can bestow only such honor as they
possess, while the honor of Christ is supreme over all. God has given Him a
name that is above every name.
This being true and being known to the
heavenly intelligences, the methods we use to persuade men to follow Christ
must seem to them extremely illogical if not downright wrong.
Evangelical Christians commonly offer Christ
to mankind as a nostrum to cure their ills, a way out of their troubles, a quick and easy means to the achievement of personal ends.
They use the right words, but their emphasis is awry. The message is so
presented as to leave the hearer with the impression that he is being asked to
give up much to gain more. And that is not good, however well intentioned it
may be.
What we do is precisely what a good salesman
does when he presents the excellence of his product as compared with that of
his closest competitor. The customer chooses the better of the two, as who
would not? But the weakness of the whole salesmanship technique is apparent:
the idea of selfish gain is present in the whole transaction.
Jesus Christ is a Man come to save men. In
Him the divine nature is married to our human nature, and wherever human nature
exists there is the raw material out of which He makes followers and saints.
Our Lord recognizes no classes, high or low, rich or poor, old or young, man or
woman: all are human and all are alike to Him. His invitation is to all
mankind.
In New Testament times persons from many and
varied social levels heard His call and responded: Peter the fisherman; Levi
the publican; Luke the physician; Paul the scholar; Mary the demon possessed;
Lydia the businesswoman; Paulus the statesman. A few
great and many common persons came. They all came and our Lord received them
all in the same way and on the same terms.
From any and every profession or occupation
men and women may come if they will. The simple rule is that if the occupation
is good, continue in it if you so desire; if it is bad, abandon it at once and
seek another. If the call includes detachment from all common pursuits to give
full time to the work of the gospel, then no profession or occupation, no
matter how good or how noble, must keep us from obeying the call.
The activities in which men engage may be
divided into two categories: the morally bad and the morally neutral. The
activities of the burglar, the gambler, the dictator, the procurer, the dope
addict, the gangster and all who prey upon society are bad; nothing can make
them better. The call of Christ is away from all such. This is not to be
questioned or debated, but accepted without delay and acted upon at once.
But the majority of our human activities are
not evil in themselves; they are neutral. The laborer, the
statesman, the housewife, the doctor, the teacher, the engineer-such as these
engage in activities that are neither good nor bad. Their moral
qualities are imparted by the one who engages in them. So the call of Christ is
not away from such things, for they may be sanctified by the prayer and faith
of the individual, and thus turned into a positive good.
One thing is certain: the call of Christ is
always a promotion. Were Christ to call a king from
his throne to preach the gospel to some tribe of aborigines, that king would be
elevated above anything he had known before. Any movement toward Christ is
ascent, and any direction away from Him is down.
Yet though we recognize the honor bestowed
upon us, there is no place for pride, for the follower of Christ must shoulder
his cross and a cross is an object of shame and a symbol of rejection.
Before God and the angels it is a great
honor to follow Christ, but before men it is not so. The Christ the world
pretends now to honor was once rejected and crucified by that same world. The
great saint is honored only after he is dead. Rarely is he known as a saint
while he lives. The plaudits of the world come too late, when he can no longer
hear them; and perhaps it is better that way. Not many
are selfless enough to endure honor without injury to their souls.
In those early Galilean days Christ's
followers heard His call, forsook the old life, attached themselves to Him,
began to obey His teachings and joined themselves to His band of disciples.
This total commitment was their confirmation of faith. Nothing less would do.
And it is not different today. He calls us
to leave the old life and to begin the new. There must never be any vacuum,
never any place of neutrality where the world cannot identify us. Peter warming
himself at the world's fire and trying to seem unconcerned is an example of the
kind of halfway discipleship too many are satisfied with. The martyr leaping up
in the arena, demanding to be thrown to the lions along with his suffering
brethren, is an example of the only kind of dedication that God approves.
(Taken from A.W. Tozer’s
“Man – the