Stories of the Saints :: Digging Deeper

Living the Life

Introduction
As we looked last week at the twelve disciples of Jesus, we realized that even though He called them to a special relationship with Him and a special ministry in service to Him, they were not His only disciples. And even today, we who are Christians are also learners and followers of Jesus. Today we explore more of what it means to live the life of a disciple.

The Life of a Disciple

In a very real way, Christians today are called to the same thing as those first disciples: to follow Jesus, who is The Way. At the same time, we are different from them in that we have been given a different picture of Jesus. They literally walked with Him, experiencing everything from a place of not knowing what would happen as they went. And though we do not know what our lives will hold, we do know more of the story of Jesus than did those first disciples. We are living in a time following His death and resurrection, and so the Gospelthe Good Newsis just that: news of events that have happened in history, and that now affect even us who are living centuries later. Why do we speak about this Good News when we talk about discipleship? Because the Gospel is the starting point and the fuel for all of a Christians life. It is important to understand how this calling and following happens, and how it is completely unique among all religions of the world. We cannot speak of the life of Christian discipleship without first setting this foundation.

In the Christian life, this is somewhat true, but there is are two significant differences. The first is that God sets the standard much higher than be more good than bad. Gods standard is perfection, nothing less. So whomever would seek to earn Gods favour must be perfect. It is an altogether different standard than any other religion. The second significant difference is that, while salvation is earned, it was earned by one person on behalf of all. The central teaching of Christianity is the Gospel: the news that God reconciled sinners to Himself by acting Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus earned salvation. So in a sense, it is true that good people (in this case, the One Good Person) receives the reward by being good enough, that is, perfect. But the amazing news of Christianity is that He did not keep that for Himself. Because of Jesus, anyone can now receive the free gift of being set right with God. We call this salvation. It is being saved from the consequences of sin through no merit of our own. We call this grace. And we receive it by believing that it was done for us by Jesus. We call this faith. These three things come together to form the central teaching of Christianity: salvation by grace through faith Martin Luther called this the point on which Christianity stands or falls. If this is not the case, then nothing else about Christianity matters.

The Order is Critically Important

So why have we spent all this time on the Gospel when discipleship is about what we do? Because the order of things is critical. Christians are learners and followers of Jesus. But we are these things because we have already received salvation by grace through faith. It is done, finished. Therefore all the learning and following we do is because of this salvation, not to gain it. This is critical to understand, since it fuels the whole life of the Christian, and it changes how we go about this life. If we are trying to earn Gods favour, then we are never sure if we have done enough, and we will fall far short of Gods standard. But we live in light of the fact that we have Gods favour, our works are ones of joy, thanksgiving, and freedom.

All Religions Are Not the Same

As humans we have a built-in sense of what we would call fairness: do good things, get re- warded; do bad things, get punished. And most religions work within that same framework: good people are rewarded with good things in the afterlife (or in the next go-round of life, as the case may be) and bad people get punished. For religions who have a god-figure, humans must earn that gods favour by doing the right things. And even if there is no god figure, the general thinking is that if you do more good things than bad, youll have a better (after)life. It is easy to see how this makes sense to us as peopleit seems like common sense.

The Cost of Discipleship

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ...costly grace confronts us as a

gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: My yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffers words reveal the key to the life of the Christian: giving us this grace cost God everything, and in response to that, our hearts are turned to Him, and we live differently. Yet there is more grace: even the very desire to follow is a gift of God! And so, our desires and passions turn: from hostility to peace-making, from greed to generosity, from seeking fairness to giving grace, and much more. But in this world, these things are costly. Living in response to the Gospel costs us time that is used differently than the world would expect. The same is true of money, our abilities, and more. Everything is used for Gods glory and not ours, for His pleasure and not ours. And yet the great paradox is that the more we seek His desires and not ours, the more we become satisfied in His desires. Therefore His desires become ours, and we value more and more the things of God rather than the things of this world. Our costs are turned from burdens into joys, from I have to into I get to. So how do we do this? Very simply. We do it. That sounds odd. But it is true? How do you become a more generous person? By giving things away. The more you do it, the more you will desire to do it. The same is true for things like developing friendships, reading the Bible, praying, and much more. It is simple, but not easy, since sin always wants one of two things: either to turn us away from God completely, or to focus us on our works rather than the One who enables us to do them. So this week, consider the cost of discipleship. Here are some things on which to reflect: - Why is it so hard to keep the order of things straight? Why is it so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we do good things in order to earn Gods favour? - Lutherans might describe Bonhoeffers concept of cheap grace as the Gospel with no Law. Investigate this further. What is the logical conclusion of this concept? What are some costs that are easier for you to think of as I have to instead of I get to?

Stories of the Saints

Walk and Follow

(To accompany the Sermon on June 17, 2012)