What is a Whole Disciple?
Hi there, I'm Thomas and I'm one of your pastors here at Parkview, and today I wanna talk to you about what a whole disciple is. And in this teaching I specifically wanna talk to you about sort of our basic definition of a disciple. What we say is that a whole disciple is a forgiven child of God who has taken the next step to learn Jesus, love Jesus and live Jesus. We're gonna be unpacking what exactly we mean by learn Jesus, love Jesus, live Jesus. But in this first time together, I want to talk to you about that basic definition, a forgiven child of God who is taking the next step. And I specifically want to talk to you about why it is so important that we get the relationship between who we are and what we do in the right order. So like I said, let's start at the very beginning.
A whole disciple is a forgiven child of God. Forgiven. What do we mean by that? When we say forgiven, what we mean is that a disciple is someone who has had their sins atoned for through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, on his or her behalf. This is the good news. This is the gospel. A disciple is someone who is believed in and trusted in that work on their behalf, that sinful, broken people like you and me can do something with the burden of our sin. And in response, God offers complete and unconditional forgiveness and welcome. On the cross, Jesus received the punishment that every disciple deserves. He was treated as we deserve. The death penalty that we have earned that was waiting for us has already been executed in Christ’s death. And yet Christ's death did not only wipe the slate clean and give us sort of a fresh start as people before God, it did more than that.
God has not just declared a cosmic ceasefire and decided he's no longer angry at us. Although he has done that, praise God. Forgiveness is all about God, establishing a new relationship between himself and his creatures. Forgiveness is about restoration. It's about renewed relationship. And so when we say that a disciple is forgiven, we also say is a forgiven child of God. That's what we mean when we say a forgiven child of God. It's only our natural inclination that tells us that when we come to Jesus and we become Christians, eventually we begin to assume that God sees us as sort of strangers, as someone that he's sort of aware of and vaguely interested in, and that if we would sort of do enough for him, he'll become interested in our lives and begin to somehow help us. The only problem with that is the Bible. Consider Galatians 4 as one of thousands of examples that remind us that the way that we tend to think about God is often wrong.
Galatians 4:4-5 says this, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law to forgive them so that we might receive adoption as sons or daughters. Hmm. Jesus came and died so that disciples could be adopted into God's family. This is the gospel. This is perfectly and endlessly simple and yet perfectly and perfectly profound so that a small child can understand it. And yet theologians spent has spent thousands of years trying to mine the depths of all of its implications. That is before we have done anything good for God. We must know, and this is why our definition is what it is. We must know before we do anything good for God. Our value before him is not established by what we have done.
Our value before him was decided on a cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem 2000 years ago. What does that mean? You are the beloved child of your father. Before we take the next step to grow in Christ, before you implement the practices that we're gonna describe in this video, before you find friends who will help you grow before you turn around and start making whole disciples yourself before any of that, you must know that every step of progress in the Christian life gets you no closer to the father's love than you were when he first brought you into his family. God is utterly for you, not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done. That is a whole disciple no more and no less, and this is not just an academic point or sort of a vague theological idea that really doesn't touch the ground ever.
Rather, it is the pulsing beating heart of the Christian life. God's goal for us is not to just become kind of well mannered, nice people generally. God's goal for us is at the level of our hearts where we really show what we actually believe, that we would finally break free from the pattern of fearful, self-centered, protective living that we have all inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Unless we are convinced at the deepest level that God is utterly for us, then all of our obedience, as good as it might be, will at the end, either be an attempt to somehow earn God's favor and put him in our debt so that he has to help us in whatever circumstance we're facing or to make ourselves look better than others. We'll either become hypocrites or prideful Pharisees. That is not what God is interested in.
He does not want spiritual taxpayers who are only willing to do what God demands of him. God wants beloved children who lovingly adore and obey and enjoy him. And that is why whole disciples must first and above all else and underneath and through all else, remember and be founded on the reality that we are forgiven children of God. The gospel tells us not just that Jesus has taken our place on the cross, paying for our sin, not just giving us a blank slate, but actually whatever situation we are facing. Being adopted into His family means that when whatever you are dealing with right now and whatever your next step of obedience might bring (pain, trial rejection, shame), God is treating you like he is treating his perfect son. God is inviting you into green pastures and still waters. God is giving you all of his kindness all of the time, even when he is calling you into dark and difficult places.
Because the gospel is true, we can know God is not asking us something arbitrarily not asking us something that is not ultimately for our good, but rather that just as He would treat his beloved son, he is treating us only calling us forward into difficulties because he wants to bless us. He's treating us like he treated Jesus. When we are doing our best to love Jesus by loving his people, we can rest in the knowledge that even when God's people sometimes don't treat us well or when it's really difficult, when we have to, we have to own up for things and it's really challenging. We can know that we don't have to somehow muster up love for God's people from some kind of reservoir that we're supposed to have, but rather God's own love. Jesus's love for his own people is within us. The spirit of a perfect lover of God's people is within you.
You will never find an end to God's love when you look to him for it. When you're seeking to live Jesus by prayerfully pursuing the spirit's lead, you do not have to wonder whether God is actually listening to you as you pray. God is listening to you, and responding to you as if you were his perfect son. Imagine, does God hear and respond to the prayers of Jesus? You'd say, of course. Of course he does. Well because the gospel is true because you are an adopted, forgiven, adopted child of God. He is responding to you in this exact same way that is how interested and devoted he is to answering every single thing that you bring before him. No matter what it looks like for us as we take the next step with Jesus, we remember this fundamental definition. You are a forgiven child of God taking the next step, not beyond the gospel of grace, but empowered by and filled by and remembering everything that we do is simply working out the gospel of grace in every aspect of our lives. No matter how difficult our circumstance, no matter how challenging obedience looks, no matter what God is asking for us, he is fundamentally looking to bring us into his green pastures and his still waters to restore our souls.
