“Then a scribe came and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’ Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ Another of the disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”
— Matthew 8:19–22

We are presented with two examples of people who are prevented from giving their all to Christ. Their specific cases typify the broader categories of those who have difficulty severing ties with the old life either because of their attachment to material wealth or because of their commitment to earthly relationships. Every Believer at one point or another is probably faced with the dilemma of what they will ultimately do when it comes to that one, particular worldly person, place, or thing which tugs at them most from the old life.

“But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’”
— Luke 9:62

It would appear to be just like weight-loss advertisements claiming you don’t have to sacrifice deserts with their system, but these days it seems like Christians are presented with far more promises of being able to go on business as usual than having to change. The emphasis on living a crucified life, of picking up one’s cross, and the core teaching that the definition of a Christian is a new creation in Christ who no longer lives according to the world is, to say the least, diminished. I don’t think it is coincidental at all that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a new church facility which was built to physically distinguish itself as a church as once was the practice. So much of the world has been incorporated inside that it was inevitable, I suppose, that they begin to look like every other worldly building on the outside.

The Church in general, and those who claim the title “Christian” specifically, are no longer defined as new creations who sever all attachment and pursuit of their old life. This is painfully evidenced in the fact that there is no topic of moral behavior by which such people are statistically indistinguishable. In other words, Christians are not visibly distinguishable because they have a lower divorce rate, a lower abortion rate, a different opinion or pursuit of adulterous or homosexual relationships, and on and on where any moral standard of the world conflicts with that established in God’s Word. What exactly have such people left and put behind them to characterize a crucified life?

The old school Bible teacher in me wants to rail on about how we need to bring back this teaching to every pulpit so as to correct not just the overall course of the Church but every passenger on board. I have the sinking feeling, however, that in those churches which have so clung to the world’s ways so as to be indistinguishable from the world, that such a message would simply drive those people out the door and down the street the next most conveniently located mirror of the same thing. The struggle of leaving the old life for the new is neither popular nor desired. And it is probably one of the most elegant proofs that we are living in an age of apostasy which characterizes the Last Days. _††_†

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