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Discipleship: What We Believe

(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

My definition of a Christian disciple distinguishes Christianity from other beliefs, but it does not articulate everything needed to get a person saved, and so it seems incomplete. When I go through a gospel presentation, am I telling a person everything they need to know to get into the kingdom? Or is the prayer I am leading them through only leading them to a false idea of Christianity?

For example, one gospel presentation I was taught was the “Roman Road,” which uses three verses to explain the gospel and lead people to Christ: Rom 3:23, 6:23, 10:9-10. But do these three verses contain everything we need to believe to truly call ourselves Christians?

Does the Roman Road gospel presentation, using Rom 3:23, 6:23, and 10:9-10, tell us everything we must believe to be Christian? Click To Tweet

Norman Geisler and Chad Meister’s book Reasons for Faith identifies the beliefs that are essential to be true for Christianity to be true, and then breaks them down further to a shorter list of those that a person must believe in order to be saved. In other words, some beliefs must be true but we do not necessarily have to believe them, or understand them fully, to be saved. I want to focus on what we must know and believe so that we can check our own beliefs and also be equipped to help lead others to Christ more effectively. With this in mind, I summarized these beliefs below, followed by a detailed explanation with verse references.

I believe:

There is one God, and Jesus is both fully God and fully human.

Every person is sinful and therefore deserves death, but Jesus paid this death penalty for our sin on the cross and then demonstrated power over sin and death by rising from death back to life.

This sacrifice is God’s grace gift for the forgiveness of our sin, and this gift of grace is received by having faith.

These are the elements we must have in explaining the full gospel of Christ:

There is one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (NET) The Hebrew looks more like this: “Pay close attention, Israel: YHWH God, YHWH one.” This is a simple and powerful statement saying there is only one true, almighty, and sovereign God. To understand this, we each need to understand what God is to us. We all drift toward our small gods, believing in some outside force that has influence over us but not complete control, and allowing our devotion and trust to fall on aspects of the world around us. Christians must not only know that God is the one and only God, Isa 45:5, the creator of everything, Heb 11:3, the beginning and the end, Rev 22:13, and that he is complete in his sovereignty over all the universe, Col 1:18, we must also pay special attention to ensuring our life reflects this knowledge in everything we do, say, and even think, Matt 5:21-48.

Jesus is fully human. Jesus is fully God. Jesus must be more than a human teacher, and at the same time calling him a deity is not enough to adequately describe him. The first chapter of John’s gospel, John 1:1-3, makes it clear that Jesus took part in the creation of the universe, in everything that was made, meaning he helped create you! But he was also flesh and blood like us, John 1:14 & Heb 2:17, humbling himself to take on our weaknesses in order to be a perfect, eternal high priest on our behalf, Heb 6:19-20. What separates his flesh from ours is that he was born of God and not a man, Luke 1:35, and therefore did not inherit Adam’s sin.(1)

We all have sinned and deserve death. Everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God, Rom 3:23, and this sin requires death as punishment, Rom 6:23. It is a common thing to minimize our sin, but this is a mistake. We must recognize the evil in what we do and say and think, Matt 5:21-48, acknowledging the vast difference between our perfectly righteous and holy God and us, and accept that the only just punishment is death, Eph 2:1-2, 12. This is a penalty that must be paid, in order for justice to be satisfied, Heb 9:12-15.

Jesus paid the penalty of our sins on the cross. Because he was fully human and subject to our weaknesses, and yet without sin, 2 Cor 5:21, Jesus’s death on the cross is the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the complete payment of our debt, Heb 9:14, satisfying justice regarding our sin. There is nothing more that needs to be done or can be done about sin, it is wholly wrapped up and finished on the cross, Col 2:13-15, leaving no room for works that earn salvation, Eph 2:8-9, nor for guilt or self-condemnation, Psa 32:5.

Jesus rose from death back to life in bodily form. More than a spirit, a ghost, or a dream, Jesus demonstrated this by eating food with them and having people touch him, Luke 24:36-43, and many people witnessed his resurrection, Acts 1:3. Jesus rose from the dead to demonstrate his power over death and his deity, Eph 1:18-23, and to give us the hope of a future resurrection, Rom 6:5. His resurrection is so important, believing it is specifically mentioned as a requirement for salvation, Rom 10:9.

We all need grace. We are not able to live the life and pay the penalty that Jesus did, we all already failed, Isa 64:6. Therefore, we need the gift of forgiveness given to us, we need access to Christ’s paid penalty of sin. Just because he paid the penalty doesn’t mean he paid it for me, his blood only covers me via grace. This grace is the free gift of forgiveness and salvation, Rom 3:24. Grace is the means of forgiveness because we did not earn it and cannot attain it on our own, Eph 2:9. Grace puts us in the humble position of having to accept what another did for us. Grace is the gift offered, faith is the gift accepted, Eph 2:8.

We all need faith. Everyone has the option of refusing the gift of grace (Esau, Judas). Accepting it is an act of faith, it is the “I believe,” Rom 10:8-10, and it is how we access what Jesus did for us, John 6:47. This does not mean that we fully understand it or can explain it, Phil 3:15-16, but simply that we believe and agree to live according to these truths, Rom 1:17. Further, to keep us humble, all of us will, from time to time, be faithless and fearful and backslide into sinfulness, yet God remains faithful to draw us back to him, 2 Tim 2:11-13.

My conclusion is that most gospel presentations, the Roman Road included, do not include all the truths necessary to adequately lead someone to Christ. That being said, my wife became a Christian without believing that Jesus was God, but when someone confronted her on this issue, he easily convinced her of this truth. Why? Because she was saved, the Spirit of Christ was dwelling within her, and God lead her to that conversation with that man so that her faith would be made complete. This happened in the Bible, when Aquila and Priscilla had to explain to Apollos the full gospel, Acts 18:24-26, and when Paul met some men who had only heard of John’s baptism, Acts 19:1-7.

Therefore, I do not want to discourage anyone in using these helpful gospel presentations, but I do want to encourage everyone to better understand their faith so that all of us can more effectively sharpen one another, Prov 27:17. I hope this was helpful. I know I enjoyed studying the essential beliefs of my faith.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

(1) Geisler, Norman & Meister, Chad, editors. Reasons for Faith. Wheaton Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007. Kindle edition. p 98-99

Discipleship: What Discipleship is Not…

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(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

Thus far I have defined Christian disciple and then summed up Christian discipleship as Jesus’s call to “follow me.” I will further explore what being a disciple of Christ should look like, but first I want to take a moment to be clear about what I believe it does not look like. If we truly want to follow Jesus and help others do the same, we need to look at his word and the examples he gave us, and be careful who we choose to follow.

I will focus on two issues: one-on-one discipleship, and the concept that everyone should be making disciples. I have seen both of these in discipleship ministries, and I do not see either of them exemplified in the Bible. I do not believe these are prohibited, necessarily, but I believe they are grossly misapplied.

The first issue is the one-on-one discipleship method or model where a newer Christian meets with someone more mature (a mentor) to be discipled. Jesus was never shown to be discipling anyone one-on-one, he was always with at least two, if not three or four (Matt 26:37, Mark 13:3, Luke 9:28, John 21:20). And this makes sense, for accountability and transparency. I have previously posted about a former pastor of mine who I discovered was a fraud, and one of the things he would do in his one-on-one sessions was give disparaging information about everyone else. He made it seem like he was sharing confidential information because he trusted us. It was actually a way to control us by keeping him as our center and slightly at odds with (and superior to) everyone else. This is the danger in one-on-one time: it is much easier to be manipulated, and much more difficult to verify truth.

An argument for one-on-one may be that we are more willing to be open and honest in the security and privacy of a one-on-one meeting. Yet, if we are to live in community and build a trusting, loving relationship with one another as the Bible describes (John 13:34-35, Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35, 1 Cor 12:12-27, Phil 2:1-5), would not this be better built by meeting in small groups? If we are to love one another with a love that surpasses our own blood family (Matt 12:46-50, Heb 13:1), we must act like a family.

Jesus picked twelve men to train into leaders, and he spent all his time with them, but the record indicates he spent more “private” time with Peter, James and John. I believe this is the model for discipleship, that we should find two to four other people (of the same gender) who have a desire to draw nearer to Christ, then develop this tiny group into a discipleship group. This tiny group is where we should be most open and honest with one another, confessing and praying for one another, studying the word and applying it together. Also, with a group this small, everyone can have an opportunity to share, so no one gets left out.

The second issue regards teaching that everyone should be making disciples, even young, immature or new believers. I believe this comes from what Jesus commanded before he left, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matt 28:19). I have two problems with this, that these ministries focus so much on becoming a disciple-maker that they skip the part about actually being a disciple, and that the Bible clearly shows designated teachers should do the teaching.

I have seen people who are new in their faith being taught about and encouraged to implement a “discipleship multiplication” system. This is when you invest in one person for a year, helping them to develop their faith, and after that year both of you separate and each pick another person to invest in, and so on. At the end of the first year you are left with two discipled Christians (including you), then after the second year you have four, and by the third year you would have eight. This would create more Christians over time than you ever could by “converting” 10,000 people a day. However, if you or the one you invest in does not have a verified, tested faith, this is the same as a multi-level marketing (MLM) scam.

I have been to a few MLM meetings, and one of them was about becoming a financial advisor. When I asked the guy recruiting me about focusing more on how to help people with their finances, he unabashedly expressed a greater interest in becoming a supervisor of advisors, recruiting others to do the work. In other words, he was more interested in the money and power, not the actual job. That may be ok in the secular world with your vocation, but not with Christianity and discipleship. We need to think more about our personal relationship with Christ than becoming a great Christian multiplier. (Jer 45:4-5)

We need to think more about our personal relationship with Christ than becoming a great Christian multiplier. (Jer 45:4-5) Click To Tweet

The focus for any newer or less mature believer should always be on the basics of being a disciple, studying the Bible and prayer and fellowship and walking the walk. Showing others how to do this should come after the basics are solid and the understanding of the faith has grown.

This leads to the second part of my contention with this method, the emphasis on teaching. If you pressure people to be making disciples before they have even learned to walk the walk, you are putting them in the role of teacher before their knowledge and faith has been verified. This only leads to incorrect teaching and lifestyles being passed on to new believers.

I have heard discipleship ministries say something like this, “You only need to be one step ahead of someone else to help them.” I do not see this modeled in the New Testament, and it ends up causing many problems. Too many people fall away from the faith (Luke 8:14) or develop strange unbiblical ideas (1 Tim 1:3-4, 19-20) or slip into worldliness (Luke 9:61-62), and these people should not be guiding others in the faith.

One verse commonly used to argue for this one-on-one discipleship multiplication model is 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (NASB) Do you see the word “teach” in there? The letters 1 & 2 Timothy are one church leader giving another church leader guidance, a teacher telling a teacher to train other teachers.

James wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (Jam 3:1, NIV) Can you teach without knowledge? Can you be a leader before you are a follower? I have seen people new in the faith put into positions of leadership who created dissension, destroyed Bible study groups, and became a poison to the ministry. All this can be avoided if we are doing what Jesus did, meeting in small discipleship groups, and allowing people to be trained and tested into leadership.

I believe Jesus was speaking to a group of people he trained and tested into leaders when he spoke Matt 28:18-20, and that he did not intend every single Christian to be doing this. The work of leaders is to build us into maturity so that we are loving one another (Eph 4:11-32), not so that we are out doing the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Leaders need to be developed over time, which is what Paul was saying to Timothy in 2 Tim 2:2.

Yes, there are exceptions, I can cite a couple. But for the vast majority of us, we should be focusing on walking the Christian walk, not teaching others, and we should be doing this in small groups not one-on-one. We can share our faith, giving our testimony and being a witness, without the requirement to teach others how to walk the walk or develop others into strong disciples. Let us focus on loving one another in community, which is what Jesus said would indicate to the whole world that we are his children (John 13:34-35).

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: What We Believe

Discipleship: From Disciple to Discipleship

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(This article is part of a series that starts here.)

Look closely at Jesus and what he did. He picked twelve men to follow him closely as he traveled and taught, but have you ever noticed how he treated the crowds? He told them parables without explaining the meaning!

Then the disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He replied, “You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not. For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (Matt 13:10-12 NET)

Jesus had just told the story about someone throwing seeds out and how some never grew, some withered quickly, some were choked out by weeds, and some produced a good crop, which was not news to anyone in the crowd. They all understood farming and how planting seeds worked, yet no explanation was given to them for this obvious bit of information.

It was only the twelve and those called disciples who asked the meaning of the parables. These were those who waited until the big show was over, after Jesus performed creation miracles involving flesh growing where none existed before, after feeding thousands of people with a handful of bread and fish, after the crowds had their fill of the fantastical and their bellies were full and they went off to tell their friends about the great experience. After all this, there would be a few hangers on who would press in close to Jesus and ask, “What does all this mean?”

It was these who saw that Jesus was offering something more than a momentary experience. He offered life, and they were hungry for that life, and to get that life they had to pursue that life. This is discipleship, pursuing the life of Jesus Christ, seeking to be like him, patiently waiting for the noise to quiet down so that we can press in close to Jesus and ask what it all means and how do we live it out.

In my previous article, I defined Christian disciple. This is what I came up with:

A Christian disciple is one who not only learns from and imitates Christ but worships him as God and Creator of heaven and earth, and this is reflected clearly in the person’s lifestyle, moral character and worldview.

In the Bible, the followers of Jesus were called disciples, but the word discipleship is not in the Bible. We must be very careful, then, how we define and execute it! We all too often take a sentence here and there and piece together a ministry method that strays from the point of it all.

With this in mind, I want to start very simple. I believe the best way to describe discipleship is “follow me.”

As He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. (Matt 4:18-20 HCSB)

For the next three years, they followed Jesus everywhere, seeing and hearing everything. They lived so closely with him that nothing about him was hidden, and he taught them to do what he was doing, even sending them out to practice. They were trained to be leaders of the church Jesus was starting.

But here we must make distinctions. Not everyone is a leader of the church, are they? Not everyone is a teacher or preacher, and Paul states that the leaders are in their position to perfect believers for ministry (which is service), building up the body of Christ so that we are unified in faith and knowledge of Jesus, making us mature believers (Eph 4:11-13). Should everyone in the church be telling others to “follow me” if the example in the Bible only shows trained leaders doing this?

Paul wrote this, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1 NIV) And before this he mentioned sending someone who would set an example:

Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. (1 Cor 4:16-17 NIV)

Yet, how long had Paul been a Christian, and been in leadership, before we have a recorded instance of him telling others to follow his example? In 2 Thess 3:7 & 9 he said, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example,” and, “in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.” (NIV) He wrote this letter about year 51, more than 15 years after his conversion (AD 35-ish) and 5 years after being brought into leadership at Antioch by Barnabus (AD 46-47, Acts 9:1-30, 11:19-30).(1)

Notice there were ten years of Paul living out the Christian life before he was called into leadership. Also note that 1 Corinthians was written about year 55, four years after Paul picked up Timothy to train him as a leader, so Paul was sending a trained leader to set them an example to follow. Those who are making disciples, doing the work of teaching, training, and setting the good example, ought to be those who not only paid their dues being trained as leaders, but who also have proven faithfulness.

I do not mean to make discipleship seem unattainable. If we are living in community, we should be able to find these examples of faith, whether they are in an official capacity of leadership or not. Paul wrote this to the Philippians: “Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.” (Phil 3:17 NLT) I believe it is important to be connected to the body of Christ for this very reason. We cannot find strong disciples to imitate if we do not go where they go, and as faithful members of the body of Christ, they will be found within the body of Christ.

Therefore, make no excuses, and let no self-righteous hypocrite keep you from going to church, nor a disgraced leader, nor a pushy evangelist. In the same way the early disciples had to wait for the crowd to disperse and push their way forward to get close enough to hear Jesus explain the parables, or possibly to ask him a question, so we also must push through the mess to find those setting the good example. If discipleship is summed up in “follow me,” then find someone to follow!

But what if even in church you cannot find a good example to follow? You can only know this from the Bible, and to the Bible you can go for discipleship. Study the lives of Jesus, Peter, Paul, David, Elijah, Boaz, Jephthah, and so many others. Note their successes and failures, and model yourself after them. “Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” (Heb 13:7 NASB)

Do not be a member of the crowd who enjoys the show then leaves without asking for more, be among the disciples who patiently wait and press forward to find those good examples to learn from and follow.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: What Discipleship is Not…

(1) Timeline from The Essential Bible Companion by John H. Walton, Mark L. Strauss, and Ted Cooper Jr.

Discipleship: What is a Disciple?

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Recently some troubling things happened in my life regarding the church I was involved in, which lead me to studying discipleship, since that was the focus of the church ministry. I want to have a better understanding of what discipleship is, how it should be done, and what the Biblical model is, if there is one.

I have been told that discipleship ministries appear cultish, and I can see why, I have been in a few of them. In my first discipleship ministry 20 years ago, I was taught some things I had to unlearn after I left, mostly regarding some verses they used to validate their methods. More recently, my church promised to develop and grow in a way that never actually happened. Yet Jesus called his followers “disciples,” so we must be able to be disciples without all the weirdness.

To begin a study on discipleship, we should define the word disciple. Maybe the meaning seems obvious, but the point of studying something is to make it certain. I have most often heard that the word disciple means learner, which is true:

g3101. μαθητής mathētēs; from 3129; a learner, i.e. pupil: — disciple. (Olive Tree Enhanced Strong’s Dictionary)

We need more than a translation, though, so I went to Vines:

A “disciple” was not only a pupil, but an adherent; hence they are spoken of as imitators of their teacher; cf. John 8:31; 15:8. (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary)

A disciple is not simply a learner. A student is a learner, but a biology student is only learning biology from his teacher and not really anything more. A disciple is more than that, because they are not only learning knowledge but trying to become like the teacher in lifestyle, character, and world view. A disciple is what you call those who pursue religion and philosophy.

This makes sense because we as Christians are trying to become like Jesus. Disciples are learning to be like someone else, which means they are trying to change themselves and become a different person.

There is something that separates Christian disciples from others, though. It was pointed out to me recently that Christians not only learn from and become like Jesus, but they worship him as God.

Sure, this seems obvious, but we are trying to understand fully what discipleship means, so we need to understand fully, in all aspects, what is a disciple, and how it is applied. Disciples of Christ do not merely learn to be like a teacher, we are learning to be like God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. This is an important distinction.

The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw Him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:16-20, HCSB)

Notice in this passage that they worshiped Jesus despite some doubts, that Jesus has all authority, and that disciples are taught to observe (in the Greek, to watch over closely, much like the Hebrew “shamar”) and not merely learn or know. There is a doing, a living it out that must accompany the learning, and the motive is that it comes from God, Creator of heaven and earth, Creator of all that is true. This should be powerful motive to change one’s lifestyle, character and world view.

The Vine’s definition above cites two passages that also show us the same things.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples (John 8:31, ESV)

Here Jesus says we must live in his word, meaning the way we live our lives must have its foundation in his words. It does no good to have a great knowledge of the Bible if our lives do not change because of it, or to live contrary to what the Author of truth tells us. To abide implies that this cannot be a part of our lives, like what we do in mornings and on Sundays only, but that everything we do, say, and even think is based on what is in the Bible.

I questioned a Buddhist once about his faith, after he explained how helpful that religion was to his business and personal life. I asked him how the beliefs such as reincarnation affect him, and his answer was that he takes what is useful from Buddhism and leaves the rest.

I know many Christians often do the same thing, but Jesus did not say, “If you abide in most of my word, you are truly my disciples.” Jesus did not come and die for us so that we can only observe some of what he said and throw the rest out because it is hard to understand. No, if we are truly disciples of Christ, it should be reflected in our whole life. Jesus is not just some great teacher to emulate, but God who we must worship with everything we have.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:8, NIV)

Being a disciple of Christ is not something that can be hidden, or done without notice. We cannot truly be disciples of Christ if our lives do not change in a way that others can see, because it requires living a different lifestyle, moral values, and way of seeing the world around us. Jesus not only said that we should bear fruit, but that we should bear much fruit, indicating that it should consume our lives.

I heard a Christian telling another Christian how to manipulate conversation to steer it toward Christ, and I thought this was strange. I have never had to artificially bring up my faith, because it cannot help but come out. It affects everything I do! I get up early to study the Bible, I work hard at a job I do not enjoy because I am working for Christ, and I have no fear of doing the right thing knowing that my life is in Christ’s hands. People come up and ask me questions about the Bible not because I am always preaching at them, I do not. Rather, they see that I live differently and that it comes from my faith.

A Christian disciple is one who not only learns from and imitates Christ but worships him as God and Creator of heaven and earth, and this is reflected clearly in the person’s lifestyle, in moral character, and their worldview (the sermon on the mount is a great place to see all this, Matt 5-7). Discipleship would come from this definition, but I will have to explore this next.

Are we truly Christ’s disciples if we are not demonstrating it in our lives by bearing much fruit? Do we truly believe that Jesus is God and has complete authority in heaven and earth if our lives do not reflect a drastic change toward Christ-likeness? Even writing this is convicting for me! I hope it is for you as well, to our Father’s glory.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant

Next article in series, Discipleship: From Disciple to Discipleship