Proud of Christ

What is the Christian life all about? We began looking last week at a basic primer on the title "Christ." We saw how Jesus interpreted it to mean not only the reign and triumph, the defeat of death itself, but also the rejection, the suffering, the death of the Lord's Chosen One. The Christian life is fundamentally about Jesus Christ. It's about glorifying Him, following Him, worshiping Him, beholding Him, and even coming to resemble Him. We don't just talk about how great He is; we actually become like Him, both in His humiliation and in His exaltation. We too are anointed with the same Spirit who anointed Him, and thus we can and must follow Him shamelessly. Jesus points out some dynamics of what a life that's all about Him will look like. Some people will say "I'm all about the Broncos" or "I'm all about saving money" or "I'm all about fast cars." But the Christian is all about Christ. We literally don't care about our lives anymore, because we care so much about Him. He has driven out all other considerations, including the biological imperative of self-preservation. This is not to say that the typical Christian starves to death while reading the Bible greedily. That's not the idea. Rather, the typical Christian has given up the things he would naturally like to be doing, and is instead doing the things that Jesus wants him to do. Jesus puts that in His typical stark terms, revealing just how high the stakes are — and just how magnificent the reward is. What I hope to show you this morning is that the only way to follow Jesus is to shamelessly commit ourselves and the whole world into His keeping as we anticipate His glorious return.