October 24
October 24
Are you clear about what it means to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?
I am continually amazed that everything God ordained to be recorded and preserved for us has direct application to our identity as children of God, to the lifestyle he has called us to, and to our daily war with sin and temptation. As you read the Bible, don’t allow yourself to skip over a passage simply because it doesn’t seem as though it has anything to do with you or the trials you are facing. Know that God is a good and wise Father who knows exactly what we need. He has reached into his vast storehouse of wisdom and knowledge and recorded everything we need to know, understand, and believe, in order to live according to his will.
Luke 14:25–33 is a great example of God’s fatherly wisdom:
Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 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.”
Jesus wants the crowd to know that not everyone who has heard the gospel is a true disciple. Some hang around because they are spiritually interested and curious. Others may be hooked because what they’ve seen and heard has left them in awe and amazement. But that doesn’t mean they are disciples of Jesus yet. So Jesus breaks through the confusion and deception and lays out three things that define a true disciple.
1. A disciple of Jesus loves him more than any other person in his life.
2. A disciple is willing to make sacrifices and suffer for the sake of his Lord.
3. A disciple will renounce all other allegiances in order to follow Jesus.
None of these is natural for us. Only by grace can anyone ever choose to forsake everything and follow Jesus. May we be blessed with this grace.