There is
a question that I have had the occasion to ponder recently. What exactly is a disciple? Of course there are lots of patent answers to
this question that are used frequently without reservation. A disciple is a learner. He studies the ways and methods of his mentor
to learn about him. A disciple is a
follower. She follows after the ways and
methods of her mentor. A disciple is an
imitator, imitating the ways and methods of his mentor. These patent answers are not incorrect. However, in my own personal contemplation, I
have been asking a broader question than just what is a disciple. I have been asking, what is
discipleship? I feel quite comfortable
that I know how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, but I struggle with how to
show others how to be a disciple. I can
teach them the Bible and even show them how to study scripture for themselves,
but I have real difficulty showing them the absolute imperative of living a
life that is fully surrendered to Jesus Christ - and what exactly that looks
like on a day by day basis.
In the
Christian community, there are way too many books out there describing how to
go about discipleship. Almost without
fail, there is some method or program that is proposed that will help in making
disciples. I in no way want to disparage
any of these. They all have their own merits, but it always seems to me that
something important is missing in the method.
It seems to me that at the end of the day, the success of one's efforts
at discipleship ultimately comes down to the individual's own perception and
attitude towards grace itself.
If a
"disciple" does not have a right attitude about grace, then it is
impossible for that person to be able to comprehend what is means to to be
completely surrendered to Christ. We sing
"amazing grace how sweet the sound" but in reality we are neither
amazed by it nor do we savor its sweetness. Without understanding the
overwhelming magnitude of the grace bestowed upon us, we are inclined to have
an overtly shallow comprehension of the phrase "I surrender
all." It becomes a self-deception.
The words we sing roll from our lips so easily that we believe in our hearts
that we truly have surrendered our all.
And since we believe that we have surrendered our all, we have great
difficulty seeing how disobedient and unChristlike our lives truly are.
When I
take a step back from my Westernized religiosity and ask myself in genuine
honesty whether or not I am truly surrendered to Jesus Christ, there is only
one truthful answer. No. Upon that simple confession can be built the
solid foundation from which true discipleship can be built. We sing "I surrender all" as an
invitation for the lost to come to Jesus, but after giving our lives to Jesus,
we invariably take back much of it for ourselves again. Those of us who in song are urging the lost
to give their all are often blind to the fact that they have only given that
which is convenient. Until we understand
how amazing is our grace we can never honestly surrender our all.
I do not
suggest in this that any of us who have such a shallow view are not saved,
although it is possible and probable that some or many are not. I do suggest, however, that such blindness to
the magnitude of grace and such blindness to our own failure to surrender our
all to Jesus can only be overlooked for so long without incurring permanent
spiritual consequences. Perhaps only the
Holy Spirit can open our eyes to such blindness. However, when we come to an honest assessment
of ourselves and realize that we truly are not fully surrendered to Christ,
then we are faced with a life-altering decision. At that point, we must choose between a life
of surrendered obedience and a life of blatant disobedience. At that point, we stand at a crossroad and
make a decision... Turn left and continue in a life of shallow, self-centered,
mediocre Christianity... Or turn right and become a true disciple. I cannot say whether the person who turned
left is lost or saved, but I can assure you that for me, the risks have such
high eternal consequences that I am not willing to take them. Which will it be for you? Right or Left?
Ah, but
that is not the end of the question.
This recognition of the transcendent cost of grace and the resultant
decision to surrender may identify you as a true disciple of Christ, but it
still does not help us answer the question as to what is discipleship or how to
be a disciple.
In recent
months, I have been greatly influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer has enlightened my perspective on
discipleship in many ways. Like myself,
Bonhoeffer understood that discipleship only happens when the believer is truly
surrendered to Jesus Christ in every respect.
Bonhoeffer, however, had a very interesting perspective on what that
looked like in the believer's life.
Bonhoeffer believed that discipleship came by living according to the
Sermon on the Mount and he based much of his instruction on Christian living on
the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.
When I
think about this approach to discipleship, I find considerable merit in it, but
with some important exceptions. During
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said (in Matthew 5:17-18) that he did not come
to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law.
The rest of the Sermon on the Mount, therefore, goes on to dismantle
traditional thinking about the law and establish more correct understandings of
obedience to the law. The Sermon on the
Mount, therefore, is about the believer's understanding and attitude towards
obedience to the law. This is critical
to discipleship and so is very practical for teaching a disciple how to
live. However, it is still about
obedience to the law, which the disciple is obligated to, but it is not about
faith. A believer lives by faith and not
by the law. As such, understanding the spirit of law and striving towards
obedience to it is critical for the believer; but to truly be a disciple, the
believer must understand the ongoing implications of faith in his life as
well. To me, therefore, discipleship
goes beyond Bonhoeffer's reliance on the Sermon on the Mount to something
deeper.
This
deeper thing that the believer needs to understand is the practical side of
faith. Where the Sermon on the Mount
gives us a practical look at our expected obedience to the law, we need a
similar practical look at faith. We can
find this practical look at faith from the book of James. The book of James was written to new Jewish
believers to help them understand what faith looks like in their lives on a day
by day basis. This is discipleship, and
it is not surprising that many of the themes in James are similar to themes
from the Sermon on the Mount.
Many
believers live their entire lives thinking that faith is something they have
and not something they do. Many
believers are too afraid of falling into a works-based mentality that they
limit their understanding of faith to an incomplete association of faith to
simple belief or mental assent. Faith is so much more than either belief or
mental assent that James says in James 2:19 that even the demons believe and
shutter. Faith is a lifestyle that
permeates every aspect of the disciple's life and it is alive and living (James
2:26). The practicality of this living
faith is the building blocks for real discipleship. Deitrich Bonhoeffer would argue that every
believer should study and adopt their lives to the teachings of the Sermon on
the Mount. I would agree, but I would
also say that this will set the believers mind in the right place. For the believer to take the next step and
put their lifestyle in the right place, the believer should also study and
adopt the teachings of the book of James.
For more
information on the teachings of the book of James, please check out my book,
Faith Beyond Belief - Understanding True Faith from the Book of James
(available on amazon.com).
Blog copyright (c) 2013 Joel J. Dison
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