Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Our Associate Pastor brought up in his small group Bible Study that there is a lack of biblical literacy on an epidemic level in our society today and it has been brought up in my own small group that there is a great need for discipleship. People see Jesus Christ as a Savior who forgives them for their sins, but not as Lord of their life. This belief is no more than a “get out of jail free card, with no repentance and no remorse of heart, mind and soul for their sins against a just and holy God. This heresy is known as “easy believism”. I’ve had lunch with this associate pastor recently and he discussed the plan for formal discipleship from the “one on one” level to a type of “Christianity 101” class to the mid-sized group teaching of the meaning of following Jesus Christ as Lord of our life. We must know the difference between “right” and “wrong” in the eyes of God and be cut to the heart with the truth so we choose to do what is right and live.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
I’ve been reading a book by the late Dallas Willard on the obedience to the Great Commission that Christ commanded, when he makes the statement that if we are Christians simply by believing that Jesus died for our sins, then that is all it takes to have sins forgiven and go to heaven when we die. Then, why do some people keep insisting that something more than this is necessary (Lordship, discipleship, spiritual formation, and the like)? Willard considers four simple points. First, there is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself or his early followers taught that suggests you can decide just to enjoy forgiveness at Jesus’s expense and have nothing more to do with Him. There are many that believe that we con choose to accept Christ only because we need a Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to him as Lord. This heresy is known as a “vampire Christian” saying, “I’d like a little of your blood to cover my sins, but I don’t care to be your student or have your character. Excuse me while I get on with my life”. How could one actually trust Him for forgiveness of sins while not trusting Him for much more than that?
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
Second, if we do not become His apprentices, disciples, and students in Kingdom of Heaven living, we remain lock in defeat so far as our moral intentions are concerned. Willard points out that fallen people in their sin nature, generally, choose to sin. But, even so, no one wants to be a sinners. What do we do with our guilt? By a practiced abiding in His words as His disciples, we come to know the truth, enables us to understand our lives and see how we can interact with God’s redemptive resources of the truth that, sure enough, makes us free.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
Third, only avid discipleship to Christ through the Holy Spirit brings the inward transformation of thought, feelings and character that “cleans the inside”. When we study with Jesus we increasingly become on the inside exactly what we are on the outside, where actions, moods and attitudes visibly play over our body, alive in its social context. Behavior is driven by the hidden or secret dimension of human personality, from the depths of the soul and body. In contrast, the fruit of the spirit does not consist in actions, but in attitudes and settled personality traits that make up the substance of the “hidden” self; the “inner man”. Spiritual formation in the Christian tradition is a natural, but supernatural process of increasingly being possessed by such character traits as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher.
John 15:4-6 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Finally, for those who walk as close to Jesus as possible there comes the reliable exercise of a power that is beyond them in dealing with the problems and evils that afflict earthly existence. We are called to do His work by His power and not our own. The biblical picture of human life is that we were meant to be inhabited by God and to live by a power beyond ourselves. Only constant students of Jesus will be given adequate power to fulfill their calling to be God’s person for their time and their place in this world.
Willard concludes that you might wish to think about what your life amounts to before you die, about what kind of person you are becoming and about whether you really would be comfortable for eternity in the presence of One whose company you have not found especially desirable for the few hours and days of your earthly existence.
The Lord Jesus says, “Follow me!”
In Christ, Brian
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