Chapter 2 of Climbing for Christ

“But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, after putting their hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’ ”

(Luke 9:62 NASB).

History provides an incident illustrating this important principle. When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture. Ordering his men to halt on the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat! Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did. This is the principle that Jesus was teaching here.

The plower that keeps looking back is going to develop some problems for themselves and for others that are dependent upon them. Looking back causes the plower to create a crooked row. When you are constantly focused on your past life, whether it is your success, your suffering, or your sin, it can create a crooked life, too. We must not allow sins of the past to call us away from our duty today. Both Demas and Lot’s wife attest to the damage and destruction that can take place by looking back to the old lifestyle.

I like the story of the little boy and his mother who went to see the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They arrived late and saw the witch giving Snow White the poisoned apple. When they came around to that point in the movie again, the mother took the boy by the hand and started to leave the theater. The little boy was looking back at the screen as the witch held out the apple for Snow White to take it. The little boy said out loud, “Snow White, if you eat that apple again, you are crazy!” He was right! The lure of old sinful habits and friends can create inconsistency and instability in our life if we indulge in these ways. We become double-minded or double-souled.

The plowman or woman that looks back is demonstrating that they are not totally committed to their task and are easily distracted. They may quit at any time, leaving the job incomplete. They look back because they think they are missing out on something. This is the problem for many Christian workers today. They leave their avenue open for retreat. When times get tough, they quit. However, when they do quit, when they do give up, they find it is difficult to get back behind the plow.

There was this little one who was praying the Lord’s Prayer. They meant to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses” but by mistake they prayed, “Forgive us our trash baskets.” Beloved, we need a trash basket into which we can place the past successes, sufferings, and sins that pull at our heart.

“Ready for Either,” speaking of service or sacrifice, is the significant legend that underspans the seal of the Baptist Missionary Union, which presents an ox standing with a plough on one side and an altar on the other. None of us are truly free to be Christ’s disciples until we break with everything that hinders our commitment to the Lord. Misplaced affections must be abandoned, for they bind us to that which is passing away.

Let me ask, “Are there things or people in your past that are causing you to keep glancing over your shoulder?” Realize that we are in a race for Christ, and like a runner that looks back in their race and loses their pace, their stride and pace for Christ are broken, too. In fact, we can trip and fall. Keep your eyes on the Lord and beware of the backward look. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14 NASB).

In Switzerland, in a church graveyard near the base of a great mountain, there is a tombstone. It is the tombstone of a man who died on a mountain climb. These words are upon it: “He Died Climbing.” Let that be our spiritual epitaph. Let me ask, “Are you climbing for Christ or are you a spiritual deadbeat?” We are not going to reach people for Christ with an attitude of apathy or when we are distracted with the lures of this world.

Have you ever sung the hymn “All to Jesus I Surrender”? Did you do it? Did you really mean what you sang? Sometimes I think when we sing hymns like this, sometimes even with tears, we deceive ourselves into believing that our singing is a substitute for our surrender! We mouth the words with our head but they are too often far removed from our heart. Lest you think I am being too hard on you, I am describing what I have often done. There have been a couple of times where the Spirit so convicted me that I simply would not sing the words, knowing full well I would not follow through with my vocal commitment.

This sounds a lot like the three men in the book of Luke. “As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, ‘I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ And He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.’ But He said to him, ‘Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.’ Another also said, ‘I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, after putting their hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’ ” (Luke 9:57-62 NASB).

Good intentions, external sincerity, but a shortage of internal integrity of heart. Not always, but often enough. If we are all honest, these hard sayings of Jesus challenge every one of us at our very core. Will it be self or Savior? “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life, so that they may please the one who enlisted them as a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:3-4 NASB).

The question remains: Have we truly burned our ships, or are we still keeping one eye on the shore behind us? Caesar’s soldiers had no choice but to advance. We have a choice. But Jesus makes it clear: those who keep looking back, who keep one foot in the old life while trying to follow Him with the other, are not fit for the kingdom of God. Not because He rejects them, but because a divided heart cannot plow a straight furrow. The work of the kingdom demands our whole heart, our full attention, our complete surrender. Anything less, and we will find ourselves wandering in circles, creating crooked rows where there should be straight paths for others to follow.