The Divine Conspiracy, page 35
The human order, or “world” (cosmos), by contrast, cannot receive this “spirit of truth,” as Jesus describes it, because it can’t see it and therefore cannot know it. The human mind in its now standard form does not, generally speaking, accept as reality what it cannot see. The spiritual nature of God, here reaffirmed by Jesus with reference to his own personality, was presented to the Jewish people early in their history (we recall Exod. 20:4; Deut. 4:12, 15, etc.). But it was something even they never quite mastered—though they did understand about idolatry. That is shown by the dominance of the highly visible “rightness of scribes and Pharisees” as late as Jesus’ day. One would never attempt to live in such a “rightness” if one thoroughly understood that every thought and intention lay open before an always present God. But many of us still try to do it today.
God as personality is not a physical reality that everyone must see whether they want to or not. He can, of course, make himself present to the human mind in any way he chooses. But—for good reasons rooted deeply in the nature of the person and of personal relationships—his preferred way is to speak, to communicate: thus the absolute centrality of scripture to our discipleship. And this, among other things, is the reason why an extensive use of solitude and silence is so basic for growth of the human spirit, for they form an appropriate context for listening and speaking to God.1
Teaching the Transition
In Acts I we have a fascinating account of the forty days Jesus spent with his eleven apostles between his resurrection and his ascension. That account is absolutely central for our understanding of how he is with his people now. It clearly indicates that during the period in question he alternated between communicating with them without being visibly present and communicating with them while being visibly present.
We are told, “He was taken up [the ascension] after he had given directions to the apostles through the Holy Spirit.”
Then the writer immediately adds, “To them he also presented himself living after his execution by many unmistakable evidences, being seen by them over a forty day period and conversing with them about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:2–3).
The Master teacher takes every step required to make sure the students get the message about how he will be with them. He tells them what is going to happen to them, it happens, and then he talks with them about what happened. And then the lessons are repeated. And so on. That is Jesus as teacher. It is absolutely essential that his friends understand in the strongest way possible how he is going to be with them and how they will continue to be his apprentices and co-workers in the kingdom when they no longer see him in the usual sense. For this is an arrangement that must stand up for the entire period of the church’s existence, which means at least up to today.
“Engulfment” in the Spiritual Presence
However, the concrete reality of his nonvisible interactions with them during the preascension period did not immediately clear up all the questions and misunderstandings his assistants had. Pointing to the next step in their development, he reminds them of the ancient promise of engulfment in the spirit of God. This promise had been renewed in the message of John the Baptizer and was repeatedly emphasized by Jesus himself. Now he tells them that they are to stay in Jerusalem, and that in a few days they will be engulfed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4–5). As Luke 24:49 worded it, they were to wait there until they were “dressed in power from the heights.”
It is really unimaginable that they would have waited, as he told them to, without the experience of the reality of the spirit to which he had so carefully introduced them after his resurrection. And even so, they were still asking if he was about to “restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6), meaning the visible reality of a political entity. That was still the only way they could think of the promised engulfment or “baptism,” he said was about to happen. But the promise was of a “power” that did not depend upon a visible kingdom. It was to be a power without visible position. In the ambiance of that power, his people would exist and bear witness, starting from Jerusalem and reaching to the farthest places on the earth, from then until now (v. 8).
And thus fortified by teaching and experience, they did wait—though they did not fully understand. And they were engulfed. And they understood enough to be able to say what was happening at that moment. They understood and explained the manifestations of Pentecost in terms of God’s promises to Israel and of their experience with Jesus and of what they were now and always to do (Acts 2:14–40).
The engulfment came upon them—with quite a racket, right out of that sky into which only ten days earlier they had seen Jesus disappear (Acts 2:2). Peter then stood at the heart of the Jewish world and reinterpreted the call that God had anciently placed upon the Jewish people to be a light and a blessing to all nations. “The promise of living in a holy power other than ourselves,” he said, “was not just for the little group of disciples at the time. It was also to all the people of Jerusalem, as well as to their children, and to others no matter how far away, as the Lord draws them to himself” (2:39).
Life in the Spirit and the Kingdom of the Heavens
The personal presence of Jesus with individuals and groups that trust him was soon understood by Jesus’ first students to be the practical reality of the kingdom of God now on earth. That is, it is what the kingdom is as a factor in their lives. This reality is the additional “life” of which the apostle John makes so much in his writings. It is the “in Christ” that forms the backbone of Paul’s understanding of redemption.2
Unfortunately, the relentlessly legalistic bent of the human soul has, over time, led many to identify engulfment in the spirit with its outward manifestations, whether they be signs and wonders; other tongues; poverty, chastity, and obedience; power to convert unbelievers; or certain practices and symbols that have become denominationally distinctive. But, as important as such things are, they are not the reality of the kingdom life itself. The reality of the kingdom life is an inner one, a hidden one, with “the Father who is in secret.” And we often find it to be absent in those who convert many others or who manifest tongues, signs, wonders, and the like.
Not that the genuine presence of the kingdom in a person can really be hidden. It cannot, nor, for that matter, can its absence. But it also cannot be canned, controlled, produced on demand, standardized, or brought to a point at which it can be dispensed by one human being to another.
The reality of spiritual life in Jesus’ kingdom, as distinct from its specific manifestations in the visible world, cannot be used to get a monopoly on God and prove that we, after all, are the ones who have “got it right.” The spirit cannot be merchandised, even ever so subtly. There is, alas, an unfortunate streak of Simon “the Magnificent” (Acts 8:9–24), whom we met earlier, interwoven with the people of Jesus throughout the ages. We all have to struggle against this Simonizing tendency. But we can be sure that the spirit of Jesus will not cooperate with that tendency.
Thus Paul very simply says, “All who are interactive with the spirit of God are God’s children” (Rom. 8:14). The interactive movement he refers to is the inner reality, not the outward manifestations. And: “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking [whether you do it in one way or in another] but is inner rightness (dikaiosune) and peace and joy sustained by the Holy Spirit. For those serving Christ in this way are well-pleasing to God and approved by men” (Rom. 14:17–18).
And when Paul writes to the Colossians, he prays that they will walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every respect, bearing fruit in every good work and constantly growing in their knowledge of God (Col. 1:10). Then he asks that they be “strengthened with all power, in terms of God’s glorious power” (v. 11). One might expect that this would be for the sake of some astounding outward manifestations! But no, it is required to enable the Colossians to have “limitless endurance and long-suffering or patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has equipped us for a role in the destiny of the saints in the light.” The most exalted outcome of submersion in the risen Christ is the transformation of the inner self to be like him.
So the kingdom of the heavens, from the practical point of view in which we all must live, is simply our experience of Jesus’ continual interaction with us in history and throughout the days, hours, and moments of our earthly existence. This is why we find Philip the Evangelist in the city of Samaria, as the new kingdom unit begins to spill out beyond Judea, “proclaiming the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12). The kingdom was reality to them through the name of Jesus. Through the use of the name, Jesus himself still acted. And Paul, at the end of the book of Acts, situated now in Rome, was “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning King Jesus” (Acts 28:23, 31).
Thus was fulfilled Jesus’ statement to the Jewish nation—not, we emphasize, to individual Jews—that “the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and will be given to a people producing its fruits” (Matt. 21:43). And those people were the people of the name “Jesus.”
And of course it is discipleship, real-life apprenticeship to Jesus, that is the passageway within The Kingdom Among Us from initial faith in Jesus to a life of fulfillment and routine obedience. That is precisely why Jesus told his people, when they saw him for the last time in his familiar visible form, to make disciples, students, apprentices to him from every ethnic group on earth. And to make disciples they would certainly have to be disciples.
Accordingly, we must take a very careful look at discipleship to Jesus. We will consider what it is to be a disciple of Jesus, how to become a disciple of Jesus, and how to make a disciple of Jesus.3
How to Be a Disciple
The Simplicity of Discipleship
First of all, we should note that being a disciple, or apprentice, of Jesus is a quite definite and obvious kind of thing. To make a mystery of it is to misunderstand it. There is no good reason why people should ever be in doubt as to whether they themselves are his students or not. And the evidence will always be quite clear as to whether any other individual is his student, though we may be in no position to collect that evidence and rarely would have any legitimate occasion to gather or use it.
Now this may seem very startling, even shocking, to many in our religious culture, where there is a long tradition of doubting, or possibly even of being unable to tell, whether or not one is a Christian. The underlying issue in that tradition has always been whether or not one was going to “make the final cut.” And that has, in turn, often been thought a matter of whether God has “chosen you” and you are therefore “among the elect.” Or else it is a matter of whether or not you have sinned too much, or are good enough. Needless to say, those would be difficult questions to answer with much assurance—perhaps impossible to answer at all, because we are in no position to inspect the books of heaven.
It would take us far out of our path to enter into these hoary controversies. But fortunately there is no need. It is almost universally conceded today that you can be a Christian without being a disciple.4 And one who actually is an apprentice and co-laborer with Jesus in his or her daily existence is sure to be a “Christian” in every sense of the word that matters. The very term Christian was explicitly introduced in the New Testament—where, by the way, it is used only three times—to apply to disciples when they could no longer be called Jews, because many kinds of gentiles were now part of them.
Now, people who are asked whether they are apprentices of a leading politician, musician, lawyer, or screenwriter would not need to think a second to respond. Similarly for those asked if they are studying Spanish or bricklaying with someone unknown to the public. It is hardly something that would escape one’s attention. The same is all the more true if asked about discipleship to Jesus.
But, if asked whether they are good apprentices of whatever person or line of work concerned, they very well might hesitate. They might say no. Or yes. Asked if they could be better students, they would probably say yes. And all of this falls squarely within the category of being a disciple, or apprentice. For to be a disciple in any area or relationship is not to be perfect. One can be a very raw and incompetent beginner and still be a disciple.
It is a part of the refreshing realism of the Gospels that we often find Jesus doing nothing less than “bawling out” his disciples. That, however, is very far from rejecting them. It is, in fact, a way of being faithful to them, just as chastisement is God’s way of showing that someone is his child (Heb. 12:7–10). A good “master” takes his apprentices seriously and therefore takes them to task as needed.
What a Disciple Is
Following up on what has already been said, then, a disciple, or apprentice, is simply someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is.
How does this apply to discipleship to Jesus? What is it, exactly, that he, the incarnate Lord, does? What, if you wish, is he “good at”? The answer is found in the Gospels: he lives in the kingdom of God, and he applies that kingdom for the good of others and even makes it possible for them to enter it for themselves. The deeper theological truths about his person and his work do not detract from this simple point. It is what he calls us to by saying, “Follow me.”
The description Peter gives in the first “official” presentation of the Gospel to the gentiles provides a sharp picture of the Master under whom we serve as apprentices. “You know,” he says to Cornelius, “of Jesus, the one from Nazareth. And you know how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and curing all those under oppression by the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
And as a disciple of Jesus I am with him, by choice and by grace, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. This is the crucial idea. That means, we recall, how to live within the range of God’s effective will, his life flowing through mine. Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did.
My main role in life, for example, is that of a professor in what is called a “research” university. As Jesus’ apprentice, then, I constantly have before me the question of how he would deal with students and colleagues in the specific connections involved in such a role. How would he design a course, and why? How would he compose a test, administer it, and grade it? What would his research projects be, and why? How would he teach this course or that?
The Whole of My Daily Existence Is the Focus of Discipleship
That my actual life is the focus of my apprenticeship to Jesus is crucial. Knowing this can help deliver us from the genuine craziness that the current distinction between “full-time Christian service” and “part-time Christian service” imposes on us. For a disciple of Jesus is not necessarily one devoted to doing specifically religious things as that is usually understood. To repeat, I am learning from Jesus how to lead my life, my whole life, my real life. Note, please, I am not learning from him how to lead his life. His life on earth was a transcendently wonderful one. But it has now been led. Neither I nor anyone else, even himself, will ever lead it again. And he is, in any case, interested in my life, that very existence that is me. There lies my need. I need to be able to lead my life as he would lead it if he were I.
So as his disciple I am not necessarily learning how to do special religious things, either as a part of “full-time service” or as a part of “part-time service.” My discipleship to Jesus is, within clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, “religious” or not.
Brother Lawrence, who was a kitchen worker and cook, remarks.
Our sanctification does not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God’s sake which we commonly do for our own…. It is a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.5
It is crucial for our walk in the kingdom to understand that the teachings of Jesus, which we have been examining at such length in this book, do not by themselves make a life. They were never intended to. Rather, they presuppose a life. But that causes no problem, for of course each one of us is provided a life automatically. And we know exactly what it is. It is who we are and what we do. It is precisely this life that God wants us to give to him. We must only be careful to understand its true dignity. To every person we can say with confidence, “You, in the midst of your actual life there, are exactly the person God wanted.”
The teachings of Jesus in the Gospels show us how to live the life we have been given through the time, place, family, neighbors, talents, and opportunities that are ours. His words left to us in scripture provide all we need in the way of general teachings about how to conduct our particular affairs. If we only put them into practice, along the lines previously discussed, most of the problems that trouble human life would be eliminated. That is why, as we have noted, Jesus directs his teaching in Matthew 5 through 7 toward things like murder and anger, contempt and lusting, family rejection, verbal bullying. This is real life. Though his teachings do not make a life, they intersect at every point with every life.
So life in the kingdom is not just a matter of not doing what is wrong. The apprentices of Jesus are primarily occupied with the positive good that can be done during their days “under the sun” and the positive strengths and virtues that they develop in themselves as they grow toward “the kingdom prepared for them from the foundations of the world” (Matt. 25:34). What they, and God, get out of their lifetime is chiefly the person they become. And that is why their real life is so important.
