As soldiers, they have no choice but to obey their commanding officer, but these men want to follow. They have heard the stories about their leader. He fought in battles before they were born, he followed his leaders into places of danger, and with uncommon valor he often risked his life for others. This officer’s past heroics and present position now impact a whole company of young soldiers. The willingness these men have to follow their leader goes much deeper than duty.
“Endure hardship with us as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he simply wants to please his commanding officer.” (II Timothy 2:3-4)
Our Lord will require no steps He was not willing to take. “Abandon all.” “Deny yourself.” “Pick up your cross.” What could He ask that He has not done? And is there not a purpose for sacrifice? As there was purpose for our King, so there will be purpose for His followers. We may not always understand, but by faith we persevere – believing what we have not seen, trusting what we cannot touch, and risking everything on Jesus being who He says He is. He is the One I want to follow.
This Man entered battles we don’t even fathom. Because He obeyed, the enemy has been defeated. Death came before resurrection, however, and so it is for those who want to follow. His past has impacted all mankind. He took the sins of the world on Himself. In fact, the Scripture says, He actually became sin – for a purpose. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21) And there is an even deeper mystery: When He died, I died – the old me, that is. Now I am a new creation and somehow I am a part of Him. It is hard to believe sometimes, but this is God’s truth. And I had better believe what my commanding officer says.
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” Romans 6:3-7
“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” II Timothy 2:11-13