Rethinking Sin Culture 2 - We Are Followers

1 Peter 2:21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. NIV84

Christian, who are you? Are you a believer? Or are you a follower?

Both are important parts of your identity. A person enters the kingdom of God by believing in Jesus. It is not by following Jesus or by doing good works that we are saved. Our citizenship in the kingdom didn’t start by following Jesus but by believing in him. So, it is important that we see ourselves as believers—people of faith.

Of course, the Christian life does not end there, rather, it is the very beginning of a journey. When we enter the kingdom, we let go of the culture we were raised in and learn the ways of our new citizenship. There are blessings of being in the kingdom that we experience now, in this life, as we follow Jesus and learn his ways. So we begin with belief, and we continue in belief, but we also live as followers—disciples of the one we believe in.

We must see the Christian life as more than the attainment of eternal life. The Christian life is about the next life, but it is also about this life. As we follow Jesus, our whole life is turned upside down—our way of thinking inside out. We are not merely called into a new destiny as a consequence of our belief, but a new life, now, as the result of following him. When we see our selves merely as heaven inheritors, there little left for us here but to die and enter bliss. When we see ourselves as followers on a journey in a new kingdom, there is a world of excitement, discovery, and transformation as we live out our new identities.