Being a witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only the greatest privilege of our existences, it is our responsibility as his followers. The Great Commission that he gave his disciples is recorded in Matthew 28:18-20(NLT). This passage tells us, “18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” It is an amazing thing to think that the Son of the Living God—the Creator of all that we survey, has given us, his followers, the extraordinary call to finish the work that he began. We should thank God every moment of each day for this treasure.
From the moment we give our lives to Christ through faith, we are no longer the same. He tells us in John 14:6(NLT), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Initially, when most of us come to Christ, we’re burdened by the situations and circumstances we face. We realize that we haven’t done such a good job with things, and we need help. Without Christ, we are without identity, peace, and fulfillment. We’re missing life itself, but when we give our lives to him, we make a commitment to accept his life utterly and completely.
The life of Christ is the life of love. It is a call to selflessness, yet it is also a call to love ourselves as we are loved by him. It is a call to become who God created us to be. The person of Jesus Christ is the blueprint of our design, and through the salvation he offers, we have received this holy calling from God to achieve His purpose. This is phenomenal beyond our greatest imaginations, but not everyone that accepts Christ sees it this way. There are many that have received his calling but are not fulfilling it. In Romans 1:16(NIV), the Apostle Paul declared, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” Paul was an extraordinary preacher of the Gospel, preaching it with boldness yet plainness. He understood the power of God’s Word to transform lives, but many Christians today are ashamed of the Gospel, and they have denied and neglected their responsibility to share it and be a witness of it.
As believers and followers of Christ, we are his disciples. A disciple is an individual that has done as the Word of God teaches in Romans 10:9-10 (NIV), which says, “9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” We receive the salvation that our Lord and Savior made available when we declare that he is Lord and believe in his resurrection with all our hearts. We yield our lives to him, and they are no longer our own. Romans 1:6 (NLT) says that we “have been called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
We are not the same after Christ comes into our lives, and this is a truth that must be anchored deep in the sanctum of our inner beings. Galatians 2:20(NLT) says, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we yield our lives to him, which means that we make ourselves completely available to the mission that he has called us to. We must understand that he’s made us his disciples so that through us, what he has done in our lives, he can do for others as well. Through us, he will reproduce his life in the lives of those that we share him with. This is truly a call to a life of love.
The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20 that he had immersed himself in Christ. His old life was dead and his real, authentic self was alive, because his real, authentic self is Christ, alive and working in him. And so it is with us! Discipleship is not optional in the life of a believer. We have a mandate from our Father to continuously share His glory by being a witness that is not ashamed of the Gospel. This is the life blood of our existence, and if we do not take our obligation to Christ seriously, we are denying ourselves the blessings and rewards that come with moving in God’s power in this way. Let’s change our lives for the better and move from faith to higher faith, and blessings to higher blessings, by pleasing God and helping to transform the lives of others by sharing the Good News about the salvation of Jesus Christ!■
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“A Witness that Is Not Ashamed”, written by Vince Mack. Blessing Beads and More© 2024. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.