The Great Omission
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
The late Dallas Willard was one of the most insightful theologians of his day. Time and again he called everyday people to become every day disciples.
Often, he used the text above as an example of that. We know it as “The Great Commission.”
Yet, as Willard points out, all too often there’s a great omission in the great commission. It’s evidenced by our failure to grasp the phrase, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
According to Jesus, discipleship is measured by obedience. The Master often spoke about this:
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me…” (John 14:21)
According to Jesus, discipleship is measured by obedience.
Jesus never insinuates (as so many pastors do) that it’s okay to not even intend to obey Him as long as you believe the right things.
From the very beginning, when He called His first disciples, Jesus didn’t say, “Believe the right things about Me, and you can be My disciples.” He said, “Follow me, and you’ll be my disciples (Matthew 4:18-19).
Christian or Disciple?
Do you know where you won’t find a definition of the word Christian? The Bible. Really! It never calls anyone to become a Christian and it never records anyone becoming a Christian. Jesus never says, “Here’s how to become a Christian.”
The word Christian is used only three times in the entire New Testament and then only because Jesus’ followers were becoming too ethnically diverse to be regarded as a sect within Judaism.
Jesus didn’t tell His friends, “Go into all the world and make Christians.” But He did tell them to “go into all the world and make disciples”. In fact, the Bible uses the word disciple 269 times.
Jesus didn’t tell His friends, “Go into all the world and make Christians.” But He did tell them to “go into all the world and make disciples.”
So how is a disciple different from a Christian? Are disciples a subcategory of overachievers? Is discipleship optional, like whitewall tires?
Or have we dumbed down salvation so much that we see it as a matter of merely believing the right things about Jesus even if there’s no desire whatsoever to following after Jesus?
To be sure, Scripture clearly says that we are saved by grace (see, for example, Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). And indeed, we are saved through faith alone.
Trust and Obey
Yet it’s also clearly stated that the faith that saves is never alone. James offers a sobering word regarding that: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? …faith by itself, if not accompanied by action is dead.” (James 2:14, 17)
An old hymn captures this:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
We have too often turned it into another way: “Trust and you don’t have to obey.”
But trust that doesn’t intend to obey isn’t trust at all.
Trust that doesn’t intend to obey isn’t trust at all.
Jesus’ offer of eternal life – both qualitatively and quantitatively - is still wide open to everyone. His grace is freely offered. Yet He made it clear that that offer implied a willingness to obey Him.
Not that we will always get that right. We won’t. I don’t! That’s why we’re all imperfect disciples at best. Our followership is very much a work in progress.
Jesus understood that full well. His earliest disciples time and again stubbed their spiritual toes. But at least they were attempting to follow Him.
That’s what the Savior was looking for back then. That’s what He’s still looking for today.
PRAYER
Lord, I so easily call You that. Yet Your words haunt me: “Why do you call Me Lord and not do what I say?” Help me to see that your offer of eternal life is an invitation to follow You. Keep me from making it something less – something that you never intended it to be.
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