The Great Ommission - Part 1

No product that is marketed today can turn you into Jesus. It is not the shoes that make someone like Christ. It isn’t what they drink. And it isn’t what they wear. It isn’t all the Jesus junk you can buy at stores. We often think that the very act of becoming a Christian makes us like Christ. To some extent this is true but not completely.

We throw around that title, “Christian” with some authority. But the word “Christian” is used only 3 times in the NT. Let me introduce you to another word. That word is “Disciple”. Disciple occurs 269 times in the NT and it isn’t just about the 12 we normally think of. The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, for disciples. A disciple is someone who is devoted to becoming exactly like Jesus Christ. A disciple stands on a road with the fulfillment of the kingdom of God in sight, struggling down the path to make it there. Being a Christian is the end result of a lifetime of discipleship. Acts records that the first people to be called Christians were not new converts, but disciples. These were people who were devoted to growing in Christ. They were willing to give up their lifestyle for Christ. They were willing to give up their selfishness for Christ. They were willing to suffer persecution for Christ. They were willing to die for Christ. They were worthy to be called followers of Christ. They were worthy to be called Christians.

It isn’t easy to be a disciple of Christ. When Jesus was around, people would come up to him and tell him that they wanted to follow him. Basically, he told them to drop all their concerns, drop their ambitions, drop their comfort, and drop their enjoyable lifestyle and then follow him. The disciples knew what it meant to follow Christ – they would go with him, learn from Him, obey him, and imitate him. They knew what they would have to do and what it would cost them. They knew that being a disciple meant that they must lay their lives down, and take up a cross instead. That they would have to take up a lifestyle that would be tough, that would be costly, and that would be painful. Why did they bother? Why should we bother? Why even consider discipleship if it hurts so much? Won’t it ruin our life on this earth? Is it worth it?

Most of the time, we answer, “No, it is not worth it. It is not worth leaving the comfort of the life I am enjoying.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship where he attacked easy Christianity and cheap grace. But I want to turn that around and attack the problem from the other end. What are the costs of nondiscipleship? What happens when we do not seek to be like Christ and settle for easy Christianity? What are those costs? There is a quote I have posted by my workspace as a constant reminder. It is by Dallas Willard. He says,

“Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated by love, faith that sees everything in light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life that Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10).”

The amazing thing about these blessings of discipleship is that they are engrained in our very being. We cry out for these, yet we often fail to grasp them because we seek them from the world, from ourselves, and from other people. But their true fulfillment cannot be found there. They are found only when we become like Christ.