The "Go" Of Unconditional Identification
One thing thou lackest: . . come, take up the cross, and follow Me. - Mark
10:21 <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Mark+10%3A21>
The rich young ruler had the master passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus
Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never puts personal holiness to
the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right
to myself and identification with Himself - a relationship with Himself in
which there is no other relationship. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with
salvation or sanctification, but with unconditional identification with
Jesus Christ. Very few of us know the absolute "go" of abandonment to Jesus.
"Then Jesus beholding him loved him." The look of Jesus will mean a heart
broken for ever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever
looked at you? The look of Jesus transforms and transfixes. Where you are
"soft" with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and
vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more
likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are
whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
"One thing thou lackest . . ." The only "good thing" from Jesus Christ's
point of view is union with Himself and nothing in between.
"Sell whatsoever thou hast . ." I must reduce myself until I am a mere
conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not
to save my soul (only one thing saves a man - absolute reliance upon Jesus
Christ) - but in order to follow Jesus. "Come, and follow Me." And the road
is the way He went.
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Victoria E Gilkerson
