(CALL
TO DISCIPLESHIP Part 4)
[The
Purposes of Discipleship,
Cont.]
[ Purpose 6:
To Develop an Unshakeable
Faith ]
In the last article on this
study in "Discipleship", I was
dealing with the Purposes of
Discipleship, having concluded with
No. 5, which I thought was to be the
last. However, the Lord has made it
clear to me that there is a sixth
that I should briefly deal with.
There are no doubt more, but some
tend to "overlap," so I believe that
this No.6 will conclude this
section. In "discipleship," Jesus is
seeking to develop in us an
unshakable and uncompromising
FAITH in HIM and His WORD,
that through that
"channel" of faith, we might not
only enjoy and profit from the
blessings and benefits of His
Kingdom Rule, but that He might
cause to grow (through His Divine
impartation) the FRUITS that reflect
"Kingdom living."
First, it must be clearly
understood that there is a
difference between "head"
(intellectual) belief or assent to
truth, and "heart" faith. Jesus
made it clear that the "seed" of
His Word must "take root" in the heart
in order to produce that which He
desires: "but that (seed) on the
good ground are they, which in an
honest and good heart, having
heard the word, keep it, and bring
forth fruit with patience" (Lk.
8:15). The "heart" stands for the
entire "inner man" (Ephes. 3:16; I Pet.
3:4), which involves thoughts,
motives, emotions, conscience and
will. ALL of these are involved in
true heart faith.
In light of the above, we
might say that "heart faith"
involves a number of "ingredients."
Without seeking to go into all of
the scriptures to confirm this
perspective, just let me mention
some of the ingredients that are
inseparably connected with (and make
possible) heart faith, such
as repentance, confession,
obedience, patience, steadfastness, commitment,
confidence (or assurance), hope, a
clear conscience, rest, trust, and
love. I simply cannot elaborate on
all these in this present study. I
have written an article on the "Three
Elements of Divine Faith
" which gives the basic
essentials of faith and is available
upon request. [Ed
note: This article is not made
available through First Love
Ministry, but may be obtained from Shepherdsfield
in a compendium of articles
published under the name Biblical
Threes.]
[ The Necessity of Repentance to Faith
]
I do believe I should make
a few comments on repentance.
For, repentance is that which
prepares the "soil" of one's heart
to receive the "seed" of the Word
which causes faith to "take
root" and grow into "fruitfulness."
Without repentance there can
be a head (intellectual) belief
in facts or truths of
the Word of God, but certainly no
heart faith which makes
possible the "new birth"
experience and a personal
relationship with Jesus
Christ. The importance of repentance
in connection with true heart faith
is a study in itself and will not be
dealt with in detail here, but we
need to go no further than to note
that Jesus began His preaching
ministry with the words, "the time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God
is at hand: repent [
], and believe the gospel"
(Mark 1:15).
[ - More Than a
Change of
Mental Assent ]
In the Greek, to
repent" means "to think
differently after"
after one has heard the
truth of God's Word and realizes
he must change his thinking to
agree with what God says.
The Greek word is metanoeo
(verb form). The "meta" is a
prefix meaning "after," and the
rest of the word comes from the
Greek nous, which means
"mind." In the Greek, however,
"mind" has a somewhat broader
meaning than in the English.
Quoting Strongs
concordance on the Greek word nous:
"the intellect, i.e. mind (divine
or human; in thought, feeling, or
will)." Thus "repentance" means
more than just an intellectual
change of thinking. It also
involves the feelings and the will
(implying conviction and action).
Thus it indicates a total "about
face" in one's life
a complete "turning away" from one's former
"way of life" (thinking, feeling,
acting) to
GOD'S WAY. We might
say that repentance is the "breaking
up of the fallow
(undisturbed, unattended) ground"
(Jer. 4:3) of our hearts ,
that the "seed" of the WORD
(which produces heart faithsee Rom. 10:17)
might "take root" and
bring forth FRUIT!
I believe I have
alluded to "fruit" before so
will not elaborate now. But
Jesus makes it clear in John
15:8 that "bearing fruit" is one
of the primary evidences of
discipleship: "Herein is my
Father glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so shall
you be my
disciples." "Fruit" is a
figure of speech indicating the
attributes and character
qualities that the Lord
purposes to develop in our
lives.
Just as fruit grows and
matures slowly over a period of
time, so does it require the continual
submission of our lives to
the Lord's working IN
our lives to enable Him to
produce the fruits of righteous,
goodness, love, joy,
peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, faith, meekness,
temperance, mercy (John 15:8-17;
Ephes. 5:9; James 3:17). You
will notice that the New
Testament mentions twelve
fruits. Just as the tree of life
in the New Jerusalem bears
twelve kinds of fruit, so are we
(as trees planted by the
LordPs. 92: 12-13; 52:8; 1:3) are
to also "bear" (by the Lord's
working IN our lives) twelve kinds
of spiritual
"fruit."
But back to faith and
repentance. The two cannot be
separated. Jesus said, "Repent [
] and believe the
gospel" (Mark 1:15). Peter, on the
day of Pentecost declared, "Repent,
and be baptized (an act
of faith). Paul testified to
both Jews and Greeks, "repentance
toward God, and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ"
(Acts 2:38, 20:21). Rom. 10:10
says that "with the heart man
believes to
righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made to
salvation."
Now listen to
my words: It is impossible
to believe with the heart
unless one has first repented.
The reason is explained in the
second to last paragraph above,
and need not be repeated here.
I quoted Rom. 10:10
that "confession" is to be made
with the mouth; vs. 9 tells us what
we are to confess; "that if you
confess with your mouth Jesus as
Lord." Now if you will just
think for a moment, you will
realize that if one truly
confesses Jesus as LORD, it is an
important indication that
one has truly repented.
[ - A
Surrendered Acknowledgement
of New Divine Ownership ]
My reasoning for the
above is as follows. The Greek
word for Lord
kurios
means "to have dominion
over," "to rule," to be supreme in
authority," and "belonging to." It
was used in Bible times to indicate
one as a "Master" who owned slaves,
and thus had supreme authority over
them. Now, when a person comes to
the place where he is willing to
truly confess Jesus as LORD, it
indicates that he realizes that he
is "not his own," but that he
has been "bought with a
price" (I Cor. 6:19-20), for when
Jesus died on the cross He
purchased" the fallen human race,
and that we are His "slaves." The
Greek word doulos is used
many times in the New Testament to
indicate one who is a slave,
although the King James Version
invariably translates the word
"servant." The New American Standard vacillates between
"bond-servant" and
"slave." [Here is] a
scripture correctly translated by
the NAS, and although I have
quoted it before, I will use it
again to vividly illustrate the
point I am seeking to make: "A disciple
is not above his teacher,
nor a slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple
that he become as his teacher,
and a slave as his master.
If they have called the head of
the house Beelzebul, how much more
the members of his household (Mt.
10:24-25)." Jesus also declares in
John 13:13: "You call me Teacher
and Lord, and you
are right; for so I am."
(NAS version)
Now back to my main
point. Jesus
as LORD means that He is supreme
in authority. For one to
"confess Jesus as Lord" (see Rom.
10:9), and really mean it,
indicates that he has come to
realize that he is "not his own"that he no longer
has any right to govern or
rule his own life and "do
his own thing"for he must submit
his life to the
authority and supreme
rulership of Jesus Christ. And
this is the evidence
of true repentance.
This also confirms the
Biblical perspective which I have been
seeking to convey, that
"salvation" (the "new birth"imparting the GIFT of
eternal LIFE), comes only
through true repentance
and heart faith. We must
realize, however, that when a newly
repentant heart believer confesses
Jesus as Lord, this does not mean
that such a one fully realizes
ALL the implications and
ramifications of surrendering his
life to Jesus' LORDSHIP. It
becomes a learning and growing
experienceeven a lifetime of
ever-increasing understanding of
just what Jesus' Lordship over
every aspect of one's life (in
word, thought, attitude, motive,
and action) really meansand all the "ways" in
which it is implemented. And this
is where discipleship
comes in, because a true disciple
of Jesus Christ never quits learning
and changing.
My "burden" in sharing
the foregoing is based on
my conviction that the vast
majority of professing
Christians have never
been "born anew ." They
are simply "head
believers," assenting to certain
knowledge of facts about Jesus
Christ and His redemptive work,
but only intellectually.
They have never
come to a personal
(experiential) knowledge of
Jesus Christ, to where He is a
"living reality" in their hearts
and lives. This is because they
have never truly repented,
with "godly sorrow" (II Cor. 7:
11), renouncing the sin
and selfishness which caused
them to "run" their own lives
the way they wanted todoing "their own thing,"
and with humbleness of heart acknowledging
the claims of Jesus Christ on
their lives as their Lord
(redeemerowner and master) and turning
their lives over to Him as their
supreme authority to seek to do
His will. Christianity is not
a "religion" but a "relationship"a personal "knowing" of
Jesus Christ, and then a continual
"building" of that relationship
through daily communion, prayer,
praise and worship, meditation in
the Word, fellowship and
interaction with other "born
again" Christians in love,
etc.
[ - But Not
the
"Means" of Salvation ]
Before leaving this phase
of our study, I want to give a
warning to what I believe is a serious
error. Although conditioned
on our heart response to Jesus as
our Savior and Lord, salvation is
clearly indicated by God's Word to
be a GIFT (as a "seed" is
a gift to the soil that has been
preparedeven so we receive the
gift of "eternal life" within
when we are "born again of the
incorruptible seed of the Word of
God" (I Pet. 1:23), pass from
death to life at that instant
(John 5:24), and can know
that we have eternal life
(I John 5:10-13). Some are
teaching, however, that only
after we have become
disciples and have learned
to follow, Jesus can we receive
eternal life. This is like
putting the proverbial cart before
the horse. Discipleship is to
train us in the ways of the Lord
AFTER we have been "born" into the
Kingdom-family of God. I sought to
make this clear in the first
article
in the section on "The Position of
Discipleship," but felt to
re-emphasize it here.
[Ed. Comment: Bro. Earls
skillfully negotiates between the
pitfalls of false repentance
teaching which either denies the
necessity of repentance in order
to receive the gift of spirit new
birth ("easy believism") or makes
the gift of new birth dependent on
discipleship acts of repentance
(hence no longer truly a gift, but
a works salvation contrary to
Paul's teaching). In his later
teaching, The First and the Last, Bro. Earls does
acknowledge a lesser "provisional"
stage of salvation through
faith that can indeed be
lost. This would be a
salvation by faith without
adequate repentance to produce new
birth of the heart. While
Bro. Earls does not
acknowledge it, I would also
advance that there is
a further salvation of soul
beyond spirit rebirth that is
dependent on obedience to the
Spirit (not the letter) of
discipleship which Paul describes
as being "worked out with
fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12)
and Peter indicates is received as
the "end" of our faith (I Pet.
1:9).]
The Priorities of
Discipleship
A "priority" is that which
takes precedence over
everything elsethat which must come first.
Jesus made it very clear that there
are certain requirements for
those who would be His disciples. In
general, the substance of what Jesus
declared as necessary to
discipleship is stated in Mt. 16:24:
"If any man will come after me (read
the last articlePart
3 to
understand the ultimate implication
of going "after Him"), let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me." But Jesus gave detailed
specific requirements which we need
to examine carefully. The passage
which gives the greatest detail is
found in Luke 14:26-33. Three
specific requirements are given that
we need to consider.
[ Priority 1: Christ Before Family ]
First, in Lk. 14:26 Jesus
deals with that which is probably
the closest and dearest to all of usour relation to our immediate
family members, and makes it
very clear that if we are to
be His disciples, our relationship to
Him must take precedence over
every human tie. Quoting
Jesus' words: "If any man come to me,
and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yes,
and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple."
According to Strong's
concordance of Greek words, the
Greek word for "hate" can mean, not
only what we usually associate with
that word, but also by extension
can mean "to love
less." Jesus never taught us to carnally
hate anyone. But just as there is a
godly jealousy" (II Cor.
11:2; see also Ex. 20:5, 34:14) in
contrast to carnal jealousy,
and a "godly sorrow" in
contrast to the sorrow that works
death (II Cor. 7:10), so there
is what we can call "godly
hatred." This is a divinely inspired
"resistance" to anything or anyone
that would try to keep
us from making our love
and obedience to Jesus the supreme
priority of our lives.
Jesus gave this requirement
because He knew that inevitable
conflicts would arise in
households over priorities.
In Matthew's account we can get a
more complete picture
of this priority conflict by words
of Jesus not given by Luke. Quoting
Mt. 10:34-37: "Think not that I am
come to send peace on the earth: I
came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother
in law. And a man's foes shall be
they of his own household. He that
loves father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me: and he
that loves son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me."
Certainly Jesus is not
deliberately trying to divide
families, but He is simply "telling it
like it is." He is "jealous" of the
LOVE of those who aspire to be
"worthy" (fit) to be chosen to be
among the
"elect" company who will be with Him
in His heavenly glory as His Bride and
Household. At all costs, our love and
allegiance to Him must take precedence
over every other relationship.
[ Priority 2: Christ Before One's Own
Life ]
In order to give Jesus such
absolute love and allegiance, it is
necessary to fulfill another
requirement, which actually has two
phases to it. Both phases are given
in Matthew's account in chap. 16:24:
"If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow me."
The essence of these two
requirements is SACRIFICEwhich is actually LOVE IN
ACTION. When I commented on Lk.
14:26 where Jesus indicated that we
must "hate" all other relationships
in comparison to Him, I did
not emphasis the fact that Jesus
said that such "hate" must include "yes,
and his
own life also."
The Greek word translated
"life" in that passage is psuche,
and is translated many places in the
New Testament as "soul." The soul is
the focal point of our selfish
desire nature. If we are to be
Jesus' disciples, we must learn to
"hate" our selfishnessour self-centered desires
to "govern" our own lives, direct
our own affairs of life, do what we
want to do, etc. To "deny self"
means to absolutely refuse
to let "self" reign in our
lives, but to turn our lives over to
the Lord Jesus so completely that He
alone rules our lives and His will
in all that we do is our consuming
passion. One supreme lesson that
every disciple must learn is that we
can never hope to be prepared to
rule WITH Christ until we are
willing to be ruled BY Christ.
The correlative phase of
"self-denial" is the requirement to
"take up our cross and follow
Jesus." In Luke 9:23 there is an
added word which is important to
note.
Jesus said: "If any man
will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me." Taking up our cross
to follow Jesus is a DAILY
commitment. Now WHAT does this mean?
What did the cross mean to Jesus? If
we know what the cross meant to
Jesus, then we can understand what
it means to "take up OUR cross" and
follow Him.
In
Philippians 2:8 we read that Jesus
"being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient
to death, even the death of
the cross."
To Jesus, the cross meant
OBEDIENCE to the Father's will, not
out of compulsion, but out of LOVE.
He willingly and gladly gave His
life, not only because it was the
Father's will, to make possible the
salvation of mankind, but because it
was a joy for Him to give His life
in sacrifice FOR OTHERS. So often we
think of Jesus only laying down His
life by His death on the
cross, but actually, His entire
life was "laid down" as a
"living sacrifice" for others.
"Taking up OUR cross daily, to follow
Jesus, means that we are
committed to following
His example in these two
basic areas: (1) above everything
else, we desire to know and DO
only the WILL of our Heavenly
Father, as it was revealed
in word and deed by Jesus in His
life upon this earth; (2) as a necessary
correlation to the first, and as an
"outgrowth" of it, is that we are
motivated by Jesus' love in us to
GIVE ourselves in service to OTHERSthat we might be
instruments in the hands of the Lord
to meet their needs.
To help "impact" this truth
upon our hearts, I will quote some
scriptures to show that Jesus "bore
His cross" during the entirety
of His
lifejoyfully, not grudgingly.
The Hebrew writer tells us that
because Jesus "loved righteousness,
and hated iniquity," that God the
Father "anointed Him with the oil
of gladness above His fellows"
(Heb. 1:9). This tells us that Jesus
was the most joy-filled, happiest,
man that ever lived on the face of
this earth. But let me quote some of
Jesus' own words from the
NAS version. "Truly, truly, I say to
you, the Son can do nothing of
Himself, unless it is something He
sees the Father doing; for whatever
the Father does these things the Son
also does in like manner
I can do
nothing on my own initiative. As I
hear, I judge; and my judgment is
just, because I do not seek My own
will, but the will of Him who sent
Me" (John 5:19, 30). "When you lift
up the Son of Man, then you will
know that I am He, and I do nothing
on My own initiative, but I speak
these things as the Father taught
Me" (John 8:28). "For I did not
speak on My own initiative, but the
Father Himself who sent Me has given
Me commandment, what to say, and
what to speak
Do you not believe
that I am in the Father, and the
Father is in Me? The words that I say to you
I do not speak on My own initiative,
but the Father abiding in Me does
His works" (John 12:49, 14:10).
According to the pattern
which Jesus manifested in His life,
the things that God desires from us
more than anything else is OBEDIENCE
from the
heartjoyfully, out of LOVE; and
the willingness to give our lives in
sacrifice to others. This is
the essence of "taking up our cross
daily and following Him (His
example). John in his first epistle
admonishes us: "Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because he laid
down His life for us: and we ought
to lay down our lives for the
brethren." But I think we all
realize that this is easier to give
mental assent than to put into daily
practice. There is a two-fold reason
for this.
First, even though we may
be "born-again" Christians, we have
the carnal propensity to the
self-centered and too often the
selfish desire to put ourselves, and
what we conceive as our own
interests first, instead of the Lord
and others. But as we have seen,
discipleship requires that
we deny self. What we fail
to realize is that the greatest
joy and fulfillment
comes to us when we live first
to seek to please the Lord
and do only His will, and
also "lay down" our lives in service
to others (beginning with
those of our own household). But
because of that innate selfish
propensity, we have to DAILY lay
down the self-life and take up our
cross. This means that daily we must
let the Lord "dig" into the inner
motives our hearts, and yield to the
inner cleansings of His Word and His
Spirit, giving ourselves to
"watching and praying." I will amplify on this
shortly.
But secondly we must
realize that we have an adversary.
In I Peter we read: "Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the
devil, as a roaring lion, walks
about, seeking whom he may devour."
The devil will lie to us, deceive,
misrepresent to us circumstances
and people, and use every
other "trick" possible to get us off
the "path of the cross" back into
the path of self-indulgent,
"me-first" syndrome.
This is why in Luke 14,
where Jesus enunciates the priority
of cross-bearing in order to
follow Him, He amplifies with a
parable to drive home the point. I
will quote the whole context so that
you can see the connection. And
whoever does not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be
my disciple. FOR which of you,
intending to build a tower, doesn't
sit down first, and counts
the cost, whether he has
sufficient to finish it? Lest haply,
after he has laid the
foundation, and is not able to
finish it, all that behold it begin
to mock him, saying, this man began
to build, and was not able to finish
(Luke 14:27-30). The key point of
this parabolic illustration is that
we must COUNT THE COST of
discipleship to Jesus Christwhich means total
commitment to Him and
His will above every
other interest and relationship of
our lives. And we have already
seen that this involves sacrificeeven
separation between family members at
times. But there is ANOTHER COST
that is the main teaching
[regarding] this man in the parable
who would build the tower. We need
to understand the purpose of a
Tower as it was used in Bible
times. A tower was a fortified
structure rising to a considerable
height on walls of a city to enable
a watchman to see in every
direction to detect any approaching
enemy. Towers were also built in
vineyards as an almost necessary
appendage to them (Isa. 5:2; Mt.
21:33; Mk. 12:1). They were used to
watch for thieves or
marauders who would come to raid,
plunder or destroy, or for small
animals who could squeeze through
the outer hedge and spoil the vines.
Song of Solomon 2:15 says that it is
the "little foxes (sins) that spoil
the vines." Such towers in vineyards
served as lodges for the keepers of
the vineyards.
"Building a tower" refers
symbolically to our spiritually
oriented devotional and prayer
life in communion with Christ
our Lord, that we might "watch"
(be alert) against our adversary
the devil and all of his evil
devices. After "laying the
foundation" (see I Cor. 3:10-11), we
begin to "build" on [ it ] the
"tower" of our spiritual
relationship to Christ Jesus. In the
context of our study, we must "count
the cost" of the time and effort
that MUST be given to prayer and
communion with the Lord. Jesus
said to His disciples, "tarry
[ ] here, and watch with me"
(Mt. 26:38), and again, "Watch
and pray, that you
enter not into temptation;
the spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak" (Mt. 26:41). The
Greek word translated "watch" means
literally to "keep awake." In the
New Testament, "sleeping" is
symbolically associated with
spiritual lethargy and indifferencea state of careless apathy.
(See Rom. 13:11; I Thess. 5:5-6;
Ephes. 5:14.) To "watch" means to be
spiritually alert, vigilant,
actively praying and seeking the
Lord that Satan not ensnare us in
His wiles and temptations. Some New
Testament admonitions along this
line are: I Pet. 4:7, "But the end
of all things is at hand: be [ ]
therefore serious, and watchful
in prayer;" I Cor.
16:13, Watch [ ], stand fast
in the faith
be strong;" Col. 4:2, "Continue
in prayer, and watch in the
same with
thanksgiving;" I Thess. 5:6,
"Therefore let us not sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and
be serious." Are you daily
"building your tower" UPWARDS in
your spiritual communion, prayer,
and love-relationship with Jesus
Christ?
Another implication of the
"tower" is the symbolic
representation of the Heavenly
Kingdom
in contrast to the
Earthly. I mentioned that a tower in
a vineyard served also as a lodging
place for the keepers of the
vineyard. God's Kingdom people (both
under the Old and New Covenants) are
likened to a vineyard, husbandry
(field or cultivated land
NAS version of I Cor.
3:9); see Mt.
21:33-43, Lk. 13:6-9). All "born
again" Christians who have
received the gift of
eternal life are a part of God's
Kingdom people. But this "gift"
only restores to us what
Adam lost when he sinned "life" for the soul now,
and resurrection to an immortal body
on this earth in the coming
millennium. However, a part of the
gospel"good news"is that for those who are
willing to fulfill the conditions
of discipleship, and thus "press
on toward the mark for the prize
of the high ('heavenly'see Heb. 3:1) calling
of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14), God
is preparing a "lodging place" in the
"tower" of the Heavenly Kingdom and
glory, [for those] who will be
the "keepers" (rulers with
Christ) OVER those in the earthly
Kingdom. The reason that the man in
the parable of Lk. 14:28 is pictured
as "counting the cost," "whether he has
sufficient to finish it," is because
Jesus Himself said that with reference
to the Heavenly Bride and Household (attendants), "many
are called, but few
(relatively speaking) are chosen"
(Mt. 22:14). See also Rev. 19:7-9.
[ Priority 3: Christ Before All
Material Possession ]
The third priority of
discipleship as given in Luke, chap.
14, starts with Jesus giving a
parable and then following it with
the requirement. I will first quote
the whole passage. "Or what king,
going to make war against another
king, doesn't sit down
first, and consults whether
he is able with ten
thousand to meet him that comes
against him with twenty thousand? Or
else, while the other is yet a great
way off, he sends a
delegation, and desires
conditions of peace. So likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsakes
not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple (Lk.
14:31-33)." Jesus was speaking of
spiritual things. But first we must
understand the purely material
aspect of this parable. Remember
that a parable contains "veiled"
truth, and it can be understood by
revelation of the Spirit. To reduce
the 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers of
the two kings down to the material
realm, we divide by 10 and get 1,000
and 2,000. In dealing with material
time factors, we know that a day
is with the Lord as a thousand
years. The Jews of Jesus day
were looking for the restoration of
the earthly kingdom
of David.
From the time that David began his
reign over Israel until the time of
Christ was almost exactly 1000
years, and from the time of Jesus'
first coming until His second coming
is to be approximately 2000 years.
We know from Scripture that David
is to be raised up to rule
over the earthly kingdom
(Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24).
Although about 2,000 years in material time
separates Jesus' first and second
coming, we know that His Kingdom is
a spiritual kingdom (John 18:36),
and is to be set up in the
"heavenlies" above the earth when He
returns, but to supervise
the earthly kingdom.
The king with the 10,000
has a decision of maketherefore he sits down
and consults with himself. He
knows that the king with 20,000
(Christ) is coming to establish
His Kingdom over the earth and
nothing can stop HimHe has superior strength to
do it. The true disciple,
regardless of when he has lived down
through this age, has recognized the
claims of Christ on His life,
lets His life to be totally
"conquered" by the coming
King, that the glorious purpose
might by fulfilled to have his life
"raised" to the "higher realms" of
the coming Heavenly Kingdom. He
considers the "cost" of resisting
full and unconditional surrender
(and be "disqualified" for the prize
of the high calling"see I Cor. 9:27 NAS version), having to
settle for the "lower" or earthly
kingdom, and he "sends a
delegation" while the king is
yet at a distance (with reference to
His second coming) and expresses a
desire (joyfully and willingly) for
conditions of peace (through
total submission and obedience).
THAT is the spiritual essence of the
parable; the "price" for inheriting
the heavenly Kingdom.
Jesus then gives the
"bottom line" in plain terms: "So
likewise, whosoever he be of
you that forsakes not
all that he has, he cannot
be my disciple" (Lk. 14:33).
The Greek word translated "forsakes"
means literally "to say adieu (by
departing or dismissing); or
figuratively to renounce, to arrange
in an orderly manner, i.e. assign or
dispose (to a certain position or
lot). To those of us
who really mean business
about our discipleship, I
believe that this requirement means
that we "release ownership" of
EVERYTHING that we have and "assign"
it over to Jesus.
We merely become stewards
(trustees) of that which belongs
to God, and is at His disposal to
use, or to assign for His ministry
and glory in any way that will
forward His purposenot only for my life, but
for the lives of all who belong to
Him. My possessions and my
relationships are unconditionally
turned over to Him, so that my
primary task is only to seek
to know HIS WILL and DO it, for only
He knows what is best for me and all
others that
my life is related to or "touches"
in some way.
In terms of the parable we
have just considered of the two
armies, we can say, "I have considered
the consequences of wanting my
own way and trying to direct my own
affairs, and in terms of the
on-going, "flowing tide" and inevitable
conquest of the KING of kings
and LORD of lords, I have made a
quality decision to give up
my way, my plans, my life, my
possessions, my relations and submit
totally to His love plan to discipline
my life according to the precepts
and instructions of His Word.
I will not compromise
or turn back. I will rather "suffer
loss" in terms of what man thinks
rather than "hang on" to anything
that would hinder my
"following after" Him until I reach
that "prize" of belonging to HIM in
the totality of my being, and a part
of that company of saints who will
ultimately "lodge" in that "tower"
of His Heavenly Kingdom and Glory."
By His grace, I can say
with Bob Moorhead: "I am part of the
fellowship of the unashamed. I have
Holy Spirit power. The die has been
cast. I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I am a
disciple of His. I won't look back;
I won't slow down, back away or be
still. My past is redeemed, my
present makes sense, and my future
is secure. I am finished and done
with low living, sight walking,
small planning, smooth knees,
colorless dreams, taint vision,
mundane talking, chincy giving and
dwarfed goals. I no longer need
pre-eminence, prosperity, position,
promotion, plaudits or popularity. I
don't have to be right, I don't have
to be first, tops, recognized,
praised, regarded or rewarded. I now
live by presence, lean by faith,
walk by patience, lift by prayer,
labor by power. My face is set, my
gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my
road is narrow, my way is rough, my
companions few, my God reliable, my
mission clear. I can't be bought,
compromised, detoured, lured away,
turned back, deluded or delayed. I
will not flinch in the face of
sacrifice, hesitate in the presence
of adversity, negotiate
at the table of the enemy, ponder at
the pool of popularity or meander in
the maze of mediocrity. I won't give
up, shut up, let up, until I'm
stayed up, stirred up, prayed up,
paid up, fused up for the cause of
Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus!"
To "forsake all that we
have" in order to be Jesus'
disciples, means the same in
principle as it did when Jesus
walked this earth. However, our perspective
is somewhat different. When
Jesus was on this earth as a man,
those who chose to follow Him and be
discipled by Him, had to literally
leave behind home, family, etc. This
was especially true of the "twelve,"
whom Jesus chose out of all His
disciples to be apostles, and also
to be WITH HIM all the time (see
Mark 3:13-19). There were other
disciples who followed Him and were
taught of Him at various times, but
were not with Him all the time.
Among these were the "seventy" whom
He appointed to go out
"two by two" to go before Him into
every city where He would enter
into. There were others who followed
Him at times, among whom were women,
who ministered to Him out of their
material substance (see Lk. 8:1-3).
Yet all were disciples.
We no longer have a literal
[ed.i.e.,
physically manifest] Jesus to follow
after, even as the apostle Paul
says, "though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we him no more" (II Cor. 5:16).
Our "following Him" now is a spiritual
pursuit. But the principle of
"forsaking ALL" to follow Him remains
the same, even though its practical
outworking may be somewhat
different. IS IT WORTH IT? Peter had
the same question in mind, when, as
recorded in Mt. 19:27, he asked
Jesus: "Behold, we have forsaken
all, and followed you,
what shall we have therefore?" In
the verses following (28-30): "And
Jesus said to them, Truly
I say to you, that you
who have followed me in
the regeneration, when the Son
of man shall sit in the throne of
his glory, you also shall
sit on twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.
And every one that has
forsaken houses, or brethren, or
wife, or children, or lands, for my
name's sake, shall receive an
hundredfold, and shall
inherit everlasting life. But many
that are first shall be last; and
the last shall be first." Jesus
deals first with the twelve,
assuring them that they would be a
part of His ruling Kingdom
because they had been willing to
follow Him for the purpose of having
their lives "regenerated" (the Greek
word not only means that re-birth
which infuses the soul with Jesus'
own life and nature, but also that spiritual
renovation of the inner being
which continues throughout one's
life IF one "follows
after" (pursues) Jesus with all of
his heart).
He then gives assurance
that anyone who would have to
forfeit possessions or relationships
for their wholehearted devotion to
Him would receive "an hundredfold"besides being assured of
"eternal life."
[Ed. Note: For more
detailed discussion of
discipleship in the regeneration,
please see the final paragraphs of
Bro. Earls' teaching The Voice of the
Bridegroom.
Also, please note a distinction
between "having" eternal life
through the free gift of new
birth (Jn. 3:36; 5:24; 6:47)
and "inheriting" eternal life (Mt.
19:29 as discussed here and also
Jn. 6:27) which only comes as a
result of completing one's course
of discipleship. These are
separate dimensions of the same
Life applying to different realms
of salvation which must not be
confused.]
Although we do not have a
right to try to "read into" the
words of Jesus something He did not
say or mean, we must also realize
that He did not speak as
an ordinary man; therefore we
must not treat His words as those of
an ordinary man.
He spoke from God's
perspective of His plan for
man. Therefore many times in what we
might consider ordinary
conversational teaching, are
"veiled" truths ("hidden nuggets")
that can only be revealed by the
Spirit. I believe that when Jesus
promises that those who are willing
to "suffer loss" for His name's sake
shall receive an "hundredfold," this
is a reference to the 100-fold category of
Christiansharking back to the basic
parable of the Word-seed yielding
three categories
the
30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold. I have
clearly demonstrated in my other
writings that only the 100-fold
Christians are candidates for the Heavenly
Kingdom
and Glory. The 30- and
60-fold groups will have their lot on
this earth.
Some might question this,
since in Mark's account of these
words of Jesus, there is given an
added thought. Quoting from Mark
10:29-30: "There is no man that has
left house, or brethren, or sisters,
or father, or mother, or wife, or
children, or lands, for my sake, and the
gospel's, but
he shall receive an hundredfold now
in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
and children, and lands, with
persecutions; and in the world
to come eternal life."
Those who have gotten
into the extreme
prosperity teaching, have used
this scripture to try to prove
that for every one dollar we give
to the Lord,
He is bound by His Word
to give us a hundredfold, or one
hundred dollars back. I
do believe there is a spiritual
law that what we give to God or
others (with the right motive)
will eventually return to us
many-fold (in one way or another).
However,
that is another subject and I will
not deal with it here. The
Scripture I am now dealing with,
as quoted above, has nothing
to do with our giving to
God, although the "prosperity"
teachers misuse it that
way. It has to do with those
who are willing to "suffer loss"
rather than compromise their
commitment to Jesus Christ. In some
way they have been rejected, cast
out, disinherited, and thus have had
to "forsake" possessions or
relationships. And Jesus is assuring
them that their loss will be made
up to them in the context
of the larger family of God,
wherein they shall receive (in care,
love and fellowship) "an
hundred-fold" more in houses (that
they would find "refuge" in), as
well as brethren in Christ;
and also Christian sisters, mothers,
children, etc., in the Christian
community. Seeing this application,
however, does not negate what I
previously suggested concerning the
fact that Jesus was giving a
"veiled" reference to the 100-fold
category of Christians. Jesus spoke from the
perspective of infinite wisdom, even
the "manifold" (many-sided) wisdom
of God (see Ephes. 3:10), and we are
therefore justified in seeing more
than one application to many of His
words.
Beloved, we have seen that
discipleship requires "priorities."
Our commitment to Christ must come
first IF we want God's highest and
best. We must seek the wisdom
of God as to just how to implement
such priorities with reference to
all our relationships and
possessions, and also the will
(determination) to carry them out.
This does not mean that we neglect
our natural responsibilities in
daily routine
of life. Much could be said about
this but my space has run out. Next
issue will deal with the "proofs" of
discipleship.