There's No Looking Back!

When I was a boy growing up on my grandfather’s farm, he would tell me, “Boy, you can’t plow a straight row if you look back.” We can test this principle by looking back as we walk through snow or along a sandy beach. If we look back, our tracks will not be straight.

A good farmer doesn’t look back once he has "put his hand to the plow" (Luke 9:62). Jesus used this analogy to teach us that if we are to be His disciples, we must make a complete break with all loyalties that hinder our relationship with Him (Matthew 6:24).

Total allegiance to God is a principle that is rooted in the Old Testament. The Israelites, after being freed from slavery and fed by supernatural means, looked back longingly to the days when they enjoyed fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic in Egypt (Numbers 11:5-6). God was greatly displeased, and He judged His people (Numbers 11:31-34). Their looking back to their days in Egypt indicated a lack of commitment to Him.

Today, folks who cling to old sins and worldly pleasures they enjoyed before becoming Christians, cannot be loyal disciples of Jesus Christ. When we "believe" (Romans 10:9), "repent" (Acts 17:30, "confess" Christ before men (Romans 10:9-11; cf. Acts 8:35-37), and are "baptized" into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27), we become "citizens" of His kingdom (Ephesians 2:18-19; Colossians 1:13).

To be faithful followers of Christ, we are to break with the sins of the past (Romans 6).

Dear reader, true discipleship means there’s no looking back! (Hebrews 10:38).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets