A few years ago I had the privilege of writing a book with the help of several friends at our New Life church. My goal was to produce a manual for disciples that was essentially a “discipleship for ‘dummies’.” We started out using that as a title but quickly realized that the owners of the ‘dummies’ franchise would not let us get far, so instead the publishers (P&R Publishing) decided on the name, The Walk—Steps for New and Renewed Followers of Jesus. After some introductory chapters along with the encouragement for the readers to meet Jesus in the Gospel According to Mark, the book outlines four “steps” of the walk of discipleship that seem to be suggested by Paul in the book of Romans. Our little group met weekly and reviewed the content of the chapters but also helped me discover where my language was confusing to someone who was new to the faith and unfamiliar with our “churchy” language. The end result is a book that has been well received, and in some churches is the first resource given to those who are coming to faith. In this and future blogs I want to call attention to the four steps and write about what it means to be a growing disciple of Jesus.
Step One of The Walk is to stay centered on the Gospel—that is to say, keep your eyes on Jesus. Perhaps that sounds obvious, but far too often people are drawn to Jesus in their conversion but then begin to focus on their own efforts to grow. This was what drove Paul crazy as he wrote to the Galatian church calling them “bewitched” for thinking they would move on to maturity by their own efforts (Galatians 3:1-5). New Life has spearheaded a renewal movement called “Sonship” that specifically addresses this tendency. It is a call to see the gospel, with the centrality of Jesus himself, as necessary for the Christian walk as it is for conversion.
It is on this note that Paul begins his Epistle to the Romans. Many have called this “the Gospel According to Paul,” which is a good way to think of it. I have written that if Mark tells the story of the gospel, then Paul tells us the meaning of the story. But it is important to notice that before he gets into the in-depth explanation of our sinfulness and justification and sanctification, etc., he starts out by pointing to Jesus himself as the essence of the gospel: “which he promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:2-4). Therefore later in the chapter, when he describes the gospel as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (1:16), he is not referring to a theological formula (which is how the gospel is often defined) but to Jesus himself, God’s own Son, raised from the dead.
The immediate application of this truth is to hold on to all the reading we have been doing about Jesus since December as we move to the next series of sermons on the work of the Holy Spirit making Christ’s redemption real in our lives now. The work of the Spirit, as we will learn, is to unite us spiritually to Christ. So to walk in the new life we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. That is Step One of the Walk. More to follow.
(PS – The Walk is available for purchase through Amazon.com or other online booksellers, but I will be glad to give a copy of it to any reader of this blog who asks me for one.)
