As Christians, we have a responsibility to spread the gospel to all man. Jesus, in both Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:15, gives us the command to do so. Many of the people we interact with in the world are Christians, or “Bible believers,” but if someone were to ask why we follow Christ, could we give a full answer? It is very important that we understand why it is that we follow Christ. Thankfully, we have the Bible to show us how to explain why it is important to follow Christ.
First, we follow Christ because He is the head of the church. Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus in Ephesians 1:22-23, “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Because Jesus has been set as the head of the church, that makes us the body that is subject to the head. First Corinthians 12:27 even specifies that we “are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” Each individual person is subject to Christ as the head, and so each individual person must make sure that they are being obedient to what Christ has taught.
Not only is Christ the head of the church, but He also bought the church with His blood. In Acts 20:28, Paul is giving his farewell address to the elders in Ephesus, and he instructs them, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” The elders had an obligation to shepherd and guide what Christ had bought with His blood. If we are a member of the Lord’s church, then that also means Christ has bought us with His blood. Because we have been bought with His blood, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10:22 tells us, “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
Finally, the reason we also follow Christ rather than any other person is because Christ is our testator. He is the one who solidified and brought His covenant with man into effect. The author, in Hebrews 9:15-18, gives specific instructions for how a covenant is ordained and set into effect: “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.” What about the Old Law? Aren’t we still subject to that? No, we are not. Colossians 2:14 tells us that the Old Covenant was nailed to the cross of Jesus with Him. This means Jesus fulfilled, but also did away with, the Old Law and a new has been put in its place that we must serve.
So, in summary, why do we follow Christ? We follow Him because He has been established as head over us by God. As head over us, we are His body and just like our body is subject to our head, so the body (the church) is subject to its head, Christ. Christ also offered up His blood as payment for the church and all those who wish to become a child of God. Christ also fulfilled the Old Law so that we would not be subject to it, and has put into place the New Covenant and doctrine, that each and every one of us are to be subject to. That is why we follow Him, so remember the warning Paul gave the young Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:3-5: “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”
Oren Caskey
