Becoming a Disciple of Christ

Jesus in His Divine earthly ministry called those who would choose to walk in His way to become a disciple of Him. So the first thing is what is a disciple? Webster's 1828 Dictionary has this to say about this term: "1. A learner; a scholar; one who receives or professes to receive instruction from another; as the disciples of Plato. 2. A follower; an adherent to the doctrines of another. Hence the constant attendants of Christ were called his disciples; and hence all Christians are called his disciples, as they profess to learn and receive his doctrines and precepts." So a disciple is one who is disciplined in the learning of Him as Jesus stated in Matthew 11:29 where we find this statement in the ESV translation, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." But to get the full impact allow me to show the whole of this passage beginning at verse 25, 25-27, 28-30; "At that time Jesus declared, "I thank You, Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Now why did He state this in this manor do you suppose? Because as He asked me in an audible way as a question, 'Are you ready to take My yoke upon you and learn of Me?' Could be the answer.

Over the past seven years of this blog I have been looking into the secret things of GOD also called mysteries. Now I will look at becoming a disciple with the help of Pastor Hoekstra's writings beginning now.


"Following Jesus as a Disciple"
By Robert Hoekstra


"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . Follow Me . . . If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Matthew 28:19; John 1:43; and Luke 9:23)


"Living daily in GOD's Grace depends upon getting to know Him and then walking in the humility and grace that are consequences of growing in communion and fellowship with Him, again. We have reflected upon four ways to relate rightly to the LORD in humility and faith: living by the Spirit, living by resurrection power, living by the sufficiency of GOD, and living by the promises of GOD. Another example is our following Jesus as a disciple. 

When our Lord was about to leave His disciples, He gave them the marching orders that were to guide the lives of His people until He would return. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." Jesus had been calling out people to follow Him as disciples. Now, they were to continue doing the same. A disciple is a follower of a Master (a key meaning fond within the term, LORD), who guides and shapes the lives of His followers. Jesus is the ultimate Master, Who gives us a new life in Him — life eternal. Jesus' invitation to discipleship was "Follow Me." Along with this invitation, Jesus often explained the terms of discipleship: "If anyone desires to come after Me." This would inform the willing and interested about how to respond. These terms dramatically depict the necessity of relating to the Lord in humility and faith. As it did with the first disciples and those who stood out who became Apostles, as those who were sent out.

The first aspect of being a disciple of Jesus is renouncing the self-life. "Let him deny himself." This amounts to a refusal to attempt to develop a life that can be produced by natural human resources (which everyone inherits from Adam through physical birth). This is a repudiation of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, self-help, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation, and the like. Our willingness to embrace this term of discipleship will be seen by a humble agreement with similar biblical pronouncements. "Make no provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14). Those denying self are not wanting the flesh to have opportunities to indulge itself. "The flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). Those who renounce self confess its total spiritual bankruptcy. We "have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3). Those who repudiate the self-life do not want to place any hope in the spiritual resources of the flesh. "That no flesh should glory in His presence" (1Corinthians 1:29). Those denying the self-life agree that nothing of the flesh can ever boast in itself before the LORD GOD almighty.


"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me . . . But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Luke 9:23 and Galatians 6:14)


Following Jesus as a disciple is one way to relate rightly to the LORD in humility and faith. The first aspect of following Jesus involves renouncing our natural self-life. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself." It is certainly humbling to admit that any life we could develop by our own natural resources is unacceptable to the LORD and must be repudiated. The next aspect of being a disciple is also humbling. 

This second issue in discipleship is the cross: "and take up his cross." When Jesus spoke of the cross, He was speaking of the ultimate instrument of execution in His day. Consequently, after renunciation of self, we are to confess death of self. The means of this death is the cross of Christ. Those who want to follow Jesus as disciples are to take the cross of Christ as their own personal cross. In doing so, they are admitting to GOD that they deserved to die upon that cross. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Furthermore, they are agreeing with the word of GOD that Jesus died upon that cross on their behalf. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . . . who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1Corithians 15:3 and 1Peter 2:24). This gospel (which brings forgiveness of sins and a circumcision of the hearts flesh covering (an outer shell of resistance) in which there was a hardness for all who would believe in faith, this covering restricted faith from being faith. Much like mans many forms of religions do as they all express a type of self within them) includes the essential truth of the resurrection. "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1Corithians 15:1, 3-4).

Another wondrous benefit of the cross is that we who believe Jesus also died there with Him. "Knowing this, that our old man (the shell of resistance) was crucified with Him" (Romans 6:6). The old self-life that we were developing while "in Adam" (1Corinthians 15:22) was executed on the cross with Christ. Yes, the cross is the way out of this world of dead sinners, and we can rightly boast in that truth. "But GOD forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Meanwhile, the attitudes and resources of the old man persist in our flesh (our natural humanity that remains in the outer flesh). Thus, we are to renounce self and confess death to self day by day: "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily."