Following His Steps

I Pet. 2:21 - For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

These words are not so simple when applied to a variety of areas of a saved sinner’s earthly life. Peter doesn’t say that we should just follow Him, or just keep Him in sight, or even follow Him closely. The Spirit exhorts us to follow His actual steps. Oh we sometimes boast that we are not only following Jesus, we are actually stepping right into the divine steps of the Incarnate Christ Himself. Wow, what a claim! Now before you get an actual bone fide legal description that substantiates your walk let us examine just a few short snippets of the miraculous life of the Lord Jesus. And for those who claim it is so very easy to become a Christian, they may be holding to a faith doctrine that is sometimes stripped of any teeth of obedience.

First let me praise my Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. To even attempt to follow in His steps is a glorious privilege that outshines anything we were ever given. Have you ever turned around and seen an undesirable person following you and wish they would stop? Well our amazing Lord not only desires us to follow Him, He helps us. As a matter of fact, without His power we are helpless and will quickly stop the Christ following journey or at least change the route to accommodate our own desires. He is glorious and He is Majesty captured in a Person. Have you never experienced the time when your utter worthlessness came face to face with His infinite Holiness? And just when you thought you were going to be cast away forever, He gave you the repentant faith to believe on Him. Only a born again believer, sealed by God’s Spirit, can truly and vicariously identify with what I just described. And it is joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Now read carefully because this is not just semantics, it is the path to a deeper understanding of Who He is. Our walk that desires to step where He steps can only be dictated by watching Him. What I mean is that if you concentrate on where you are stepping without watching where He steps, well, that can become either frustrating or self righteous. And you can easily lose the joy and the broken worship that only comes from learning of Him and allowing the Spirit to lead to His steps. Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. How can we do that?

Secular books can teach you about Jesus to some extent, but only the miraculous, written revelation of Jesus Christ given by and through the Holy Spirit can open the “eyes of our understanding” and lead us to a deeper understanding of Who He is, and by the Spirit we plunge deeper into intimacy between a servant and His Lord, and if you look down you will see that the footsteps into which you step have nail scars. And all the promises in Him are yea and amen. You see, the precepts and commandments are not only contained in Him, they are Him. I am doing a really bad job of communicating what I believe the Spirit is showing me, and in many more ways I am a very poor example of this teaching.

The Spirit uses the Word to teach the Word. Not just comparing Scripture with Scripture, but the Word reveals the Word (Jesus). And the rewards of walking in His steps are not confined to God’s approval of obedience, no, many are the glorifying rewards and crowns that accompany that crucified walk. The obedient walk of a follower whose eyes and heart are not transfixed upon his own steps but are lovingly glued to the forerunner Himself comes with other rewards inherent in that walk. There is the ability of God to use the life of His own child to reach the lost when that believer is supernaturally walking in the Son’s steps.

There are other rewards, but perhaps the supreme treasure is the gracious expanse of the enlightening of our spiritual eyes in seeing, understanding, and loving the Lord Jesus. So in effect walking in His steps creates an increasing desire to more faithfully follow Him which creates an increasing desire to more faithfully…you get the point. And oh the glory that comes from pleasing Him. It sometimes takes you out of this present world and catapults you into the very presence of the One who made the footprints for us to follow.

Following in the revealed footprints of the Incarnate Christ starts with the Scriptural narratives and teachings that you will find are drenched in blood. But Jesus can never be captured in one or two paths that lend themselves easily and predictably to the path follower, no, His steps sometimes lead where you may not have anticipated or even wanted them to go. Just when you have settled into a step by step path that you believe you have mastered, Jesus veers off the course you have prepared for and now you must again choose, His steps or yours. I must confess that many times I have come to a fork in my journey and of course I assumed I know which way Jesus had gone so I go that way. Not long into this path I suddenly look up and realize that I can no longer see Jesus. Where did He go? I again look down and I still see steps but upon a closer examination I can no longer see any blood. I place my foot in the footprint and “what is this?”. This footprint I am stepping in is actually my own, not His. I have taken my own way and followed my own steps and am now on my own path.

You see what I’m saying? Sometimes we have all our doctrinal “I”s dotted and our “t’s” crossed and we have turned on the footsteps “autopilot” and off we go. And suddenly we are compromising where we shouldn’t, judging when He would show compassion, we feel self confident when we should be humble, and most blatant of all we have become religious not spiritual. Make no mistake, we have all been found from time to time lost on that carnal road and by God’s grace have been granted a repentant return to following the One we had thought we were. I have over 32 years changed in some of my doctrinal beliefs about some understandings, not any core beliefs but some clearer teachings about some Biblical truths. If you are a believer for any length of time the Spirit will help you also.

But there have been times when I was convinced that I was following in the steps of Jesus only to discover later I had missed a few steps. I have been bellicose when He desired gentleness, I have been quiet when He desired me to speak up, I have been judgmental when He wanted compassion, I have dialogued when He called me to reprove, and other times when in the moment I thought I was following His steps only to discover I was blazing my own trail. So after many years I’ve discovered that following His steps requires more of me than being right, it many times calls me to ask me how I should be right.

Now after I have sought Him diligently about the way He is going, and after I’ve sought Him in prayer and the instruction of the Word, I lift my eyes and watch where He is going. As He takes His first step I, by faith, lift my left leg and begin to place it in His footprint. Just as I am ready to put my weight upon the first step I hear the Spirit gently but clearly call out for me to wait. Wait? But why, I see my Master’s footprint clearly so why wait? The Spirit lovingly reminds me,

“You have forgotten your cross”