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    "I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me."

    (Gal. 2:20 CEV)

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    • August 1, 2008

    Modified Disciples?

    “21st century disciples are disciples of a lesser sort?” These disciples cannot be as intense as those Jesus orginally called.” “We live in different times than those ancient followers of Jesus.” “God/Jesus doesn’t really expect us to take all his words literally.” “It is unrealistic to consider that modern people can follow Jesus in the same regard as the ancient disciples.” These are common “push-backs” I hear from folks in the circles I travel. I wonder if I am an obsessive freak sometimes. I get frustrated and wonder if my approach is incorrect. I hear much ado over cultural relevance and I wonder what or who really defines “relevant.” Honestly, relevance seems subjective to me; and I often think that most of these “push-backs” are either excuses to avoid following Jesus or they are diversionary tactics used to dampen the call to discipleship…but then, that is just my opinion (and I’m an over-driven obsessive compulsive freak).

    I’m reading from several sources; different personalities and different perspectives…coincidentally though, the same message or so it seems to me. What does it mean to be “converted to Christ?” How literally do we define and understand the call to follow Him and become His disciple? I cannot answer those questions for anyone else; however, I am convinced that discipleship is an all or nothing proposition. Additionally, I am further convinced that no man will see or experience the kingdom of God in its fullness (in the present or the future) unless he has wholly committed his entire life to the purpose of following Jesus Christ. I also wonder if we (generally speaking) have a faulty understanding of God’s grace.

    Mark Driscoll (author of Vintage Jesus) writes that Jesus must act in “tri-perspective” and be known to us in all the roles that He has revealed Himself to us as Prophet, Priest, and King…

    Prophet + King - Priest = Jesus of Fundamentalism

    Fundamentalist Christians who are prone to legalism, moralism, and a general lack of love, grace, mercy, or patience are often the product of a deficient understanding of Jesus as priest. The strength of fundamentalism is its keen awareness of Jesus’ prophetic role as bold truth-teller and commander of repentance, along with his role as king who rules and reigns in all authority. However, they are also prone not to appreciate fully the priestly role of Jesus. As a result, God seems primarily cold, distant, stern, harsh, and even cruel. Their Jesus sits on a throne far away and yells at us but never gets off that throne to help. He’s just sitting there. Disappointed, waiting for us to mess up. In short, this is a God that we are more prone to run away from than toward in our time of need. The result of this error is either despair or pride, but not worship, humility, or joy. Because God is a boss who yells at us, this form of religion traps us into a cycle where if we think we’re doing well, we get proud, and if we think we’re doing poorly, we get depressed. At no point d o we receive loving help because Jesus is not fully valued as a priest.

    Prophet + Priest - King = Jesus of Evangelicalism

    The curious fact of modern evangelicalism is that there is both a general assent to basic Christian truths, and moral life that is virtually indistinguishable from the average non-Christian in areas (such as sexual sin). Researchers such as George Barna have built entire ministries quantifying these facts statistically. Why does this happen? Because the role of Jesus as king is apparently diminished or dismissed. In this form of religion, people know that Jesus speaks the truth as their prophet and loves them as their priest. So when they sin, they know that Jesus will forgive them and still love them. But they still rule over their own life. When they need help, they read the bible or ask Jesus to serve them. Practically, they don’t see Jesus ruling over them, but rather coming alongside them to help them to achieve their objectives. He is only allowed to do so when he is invited. The result is a double-life of hypocrisy in which we call Jesus Lord, call his Word true, and then do whatever we want in some areas of our life because the pants are mine, the money is mine, the web browser is mine, the food is mine, the alcohol is mine, the schedule is mine, the life is mine, and the glory is mine, and I will rule as king over aspects of my own life with Jesus as little more than my trusty assistant

    Priest + King - Prophet = Jesus of Liberalism

    Liberal Christianity is prone to understand Jesus as our priest, who is filled with grace, love, mercy, and tolerant patience, as well as our king, who rules over all peoples and seeks to extend to them grace, love, and mercy. However, the weakness of typical liberal Christianity is that it fails to fully appreciate the hard-edged roles of Jesus as Prophet. The sad result is that Jesus is seen as someone who would never offend us, raise his voice, hurt our feelings, speak harshly, or command individuals to repent with a sense of urgency because he is only infinitely patient, tolerant, and understanding. By way of illustration, I recall a conversation I once had with a liberal Christian pastor who was president of a large network of liberal churches. He told me that a pastor would never say anything that would offend anyone because the only way we offend someone is when we speak out of a place of pride. I asked him if Jesus was therefore guilty of the sin of pride because many people were furious with him to the degree that they shouted, “Crucify him!” Seeing he was on the horns of a dilemma, he agreed that Jesus was both the most humble person who has ever lived and did say some things that his hearers considered harsh because of their prophetic edge. Jesus sometimes spoke tenderly as a priest, but he also spoke tersely as a prophet to ensure that the sword of truth was removed from its scabbard and wielded with full force. When Jesus is not seen as prophet, sinful beliefs and behaviors are blessed because to speak the truth and command repentance would require a prophetic voice. Subsequently, liberal Christianity is mired in such things as homosexuality and universalism, as if every sexual practice and every religious belief were acceptable in the eyes of Jesus.

     Jesus came to the earth to reveal himself to us as our prophet who speaks to us, priest who walks with us, and king who rules over us. Jesus’ ministry continues today and his roles are the same yesterday, today, and forever. For the three offices of Jesus to be of the greatest benefit to us, we must humbly ask God to reveal to us which aspect of Jesus’ ministry we are most likely to misunderstand or even ignore and read Scripture with a humble heart seeking to see Jesus in the fullness of his glory.

    From Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions, pp. 82-84 by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

    The second book is from (in my opinion) one of the greatest pastor-theologians of the 20th century, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. A couple of excerpts from his book, The Kingdom of God, are featured next:

    Let me touch on an aspect of a false view of the kingdom of God. I refer to those who confuse Christianity with a kind of morality only. There are so many people who think of Christianity as if it were but a collection of vetoes and prohibitions and restraints. That was the trouble there in Rome. You should not eat this; you should not eat that, and all those other observances. And there they were, experts about these particular things. “No,” says the apostle; “Christ did not come from heaven to earth for that reason; that’s not Christianity!” And we can interpret that at the present time in this way: It is to think that you make yourself a Christian by the way in which you live; that if you do not do certain things you are a Christian, but that if you do them, then you are not. So you do not do these things, and then, of course, you can criticize others; you can feel that you are better than they are, and so you look down upon them. That was the trouble with the Pharisee we read about in Luke 18: “I thank God I am not like other men. I fast twice in the week; I give a tenth of my goods to the poor. How good I am! Not like this miserable publican, this sinner fellow!” But that is not the kingdom of God; that is the precise opposite. But how common this idea is! How many people think of Christianity today as something that is purely negative, something that always makes demands of you, that tells you that if you are going to be a Christian you have got to stop this, that, and the other. And it goes no further and never tells you what Christianity gives you. So Christianity is confused with morality.

    From The Kingdom of God, pp. 72-73 by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

    We must realize that Christ brings us into His kingdom by dying for us, by bearing our sins in His own body, by being made the Lamb of God for us; that He bears our punishment, and that He is our only way of deliverance and salvation. In other words, it means that you make an absolute, total surrender; you cast yourself entirely into His hands. You deny yourself, you take up your cross, and you follow Him. And if you do these things, the kingdom of God is within you. You have entered the kingdom, and the kingdom has entered you’ you see that he is everything to you, and you are nothing. You see that Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” “He is the lily of the valley: the bright and morning star. He is the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.” You just give yourself to Him and acknowledge Him as the Son of God and your personal Savior and Lord. Your one desire is to know Him, and to be near Him, and to follow Him in order that you may be in glory with Him in the final regeneration when He comes at the end of time.

    From The Kingdom of God, pp. 66-67 by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

    So, I suppose it is worth saying again… as I minister to people, especially the people of my culture, the North American people, I ask again and again what does it mean to be “converted to Christ?” How literally do we define and understand the call to follow Him and become His disciple? I cannot answer those questions for anyone else; however, I am convinced that discipleship is an all or nothing proposition. Additionally, I am further convinced that no man will see or experience the kingdom of God in its fullness (in the present or the future) unless he has wholly committed his entire life to the purpose of following Jesus Christ. I also wonder if we (generally speaking) have a faulty understanding of God’s grace…and so…I continue to read, pray, study, ponder, and practice what the Spirit teaches.

    Philippians 3:8   ”Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

    Matthew 6:33  ”But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

    Luke 14:26-27, 32-33 “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison– your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters– yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

    Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

    Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

    Finally, I cannot help but be convicted, challenged, and inspired to continue pressing on with the spirit of Jeremiah and Ezekiel from this blog post by Bill Easum (check it out here). I have to offer props and a shout-out to my friend and church planter, Paul Peterson for the head’s-up for this post.

    If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

    Increasing in Him,
    jeff

    Topics: A Deeper Walk, Shaping Me, iCrucified |

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