Some folks want Jesus to hand them a ticket to heaven without any intention of following Him. They would like to use Him without a real surrender of their lives to Him. Following Jesus’ teaching as a way of being in the world is considered unnecessary, so long as we have our ticket, but Jesus says ”If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me” (John 12:26a). To be a Christian should mean, above all other things, that we are followers of the lowly Nazarene.
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. ‘For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” Luke 9:23-24 (NASB)
