I was recently in a conversation with a person from the community. “It seems like you Christians know a lot, but where’s your actions? What are you doing in the community? How does what you say you believe relate to how Jesus lived?” 

Sadly, this man was right spot-on. Christians do talk a whole lot and really don’t walk the talk well. We know a whole lot, but we don’t do much at all. Christians sadly are known more for their hate speech, being argumentative, stingy, and ignorant. In fact, I was labeled that just last week by an unbeliever.

I walk in churches and it sure does NOT seem like a whole of Christ-like people. I wonder what are the thoughts of a lost person when entering in a church? Would unbelievers look to professing Christians and be reminded of Jesus? 

Mahatma Gandhi a Hindu believer said it once, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” 

What we need is a radical rediscovery of biblically definition of what a Christian is. As J .D. Gear said it well, “We don’t need more education to fill our minds. We need resurrection for our disobedient hearts”

Here are a few things to think about as we answer this critical question, “aren’t Christians supposed to follow Christ? 

What is Discipleship?

Generally speaking, all across evangelical churches, there is a wide agreement that we ought to become more like Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission. Discipleship has turned into a buzzword that too many are throwing around without properly defining it.

Discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus and others how to live his/her life as though Jesus were living it.

A disciple according to Paul, is one who is appreciated to Jesus. Discipleship is all about learning from Jesus how to live our lives as though he were living in us in this day-in-age! It is to become the kind of person who naturally wills what Jesus wills. 

Bonhoeffer’s definition of this cheap grace is churches preaching a Christianity without the cost involved; hence, the adjective cheap to describe it all. The preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.

We are preaching a discipleship that costs nothing on the part of the believers. We have set the bar too low. We do not expect growth and we certainly don’t expect reproduction.

As Dallas Willard said, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. An effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” When we make grace to this alone, we cheapen the grace of God. 

As a result, churches are crowded with a whole lot of confused people. 

What Does It Mean to Follow Christ?

The term Christian tends to refer to a status or position, rather than action or even obedience.  What it means to be a follower of Christ is to walk after the call of Jesus! Naturally, we become more like him. 

So, we no longer love the very things that God hates, and hate the very things God loves! The Holy Spirit transforms our desires to godly desires from the inside out. 

A transformed life is an attractive life. But, it is not an easy life. Paul says in the book of Galatians 4:19-20, “I feel as if I am going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.”

The transformation Paul mentions that happens in Romans 12:2 is an act of sacrifice. Placing ourselves at the altar of continual dying to self (Gal. 2:20) will lead our hearts and minds to transformational holy living.

Paul mentions in the letters to the Corinthians, “And the Lord who is the Spirit makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This radical transformation at times could be misunderstood as one one-time done-that-did-that event. The Spirit works in the lives of believers is much more than a dramatic event or a one-time experience. The Spirit of God works in each and every believer’s life in a continual progressive manner. 

Ultimately, a mature fully developed disciple is one who makes disciples and then teaches their students (followers) to teach others as well! 

False Dichotomy; Doctrine of Justification & Sanctification. 

Today, we have cheapened what it means to know Jesus by linking belief to a formulaic prayer that magically imports us into a relationship with him (justification). Because faith has been taught as an agreement to a set of beliefs rather than obedience to Christ. 

The reformed circle looks at discipleship and says, “That sounds like works righteousness and not grace.” Or some will say, “Christians are not followers of Christ because Paul never said Christians as followers. We are more like justified, sanctified, and glorified” Now, the apostle Paul clearly emphasizes that one becomes a Christian by faith and not by works of the law. Justification is a key aspect of the gospel, but the weakness of the transactional model is that the gospel is preached without calls to discipleship and ongoing transformation.

We must unite the theological categories of justification and sanctification by more commonly speaking about the concept of discipleship. 

Now, I am not certainly questioning Luther’s stand in the 95 Theses of Grace alone, yet the confusion of these both terms have crippled the effectiveness of the gospel stewardship in the current model of church governance in our preaching. A variety of words have been used to describe how a person becomes more like Christ, but all are under the broad theological category of sanctification. 

As a result, this understanding has led to the existence of a two-tiered Christian population: those who are saved and just waiting for heaven (justification) and those who are serious about their faith (sanctification). The Bible does not speak of sanctification as a second-level experience or as a goal that we aspire. We need to reclaim this lost understanding of the biblical salvation that scripture puts forth. 

Once we advocate this unified understanding of the theological categories of justification and sanctification into the concept of discipleship we will have a more concrete concept of the life of Jesus and the beauty of disciple-making.

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