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Sacred Journey Church is located in Providence, Rhode Island

Is there a difference between “discipleship” and “conversion”?  Well I think when you ask most Christians, at least within more evangelical circles, they will describe “conversion” as the point at which you “prayed the prayer” or “made a decision” for Christ.  Then on the other hand, discipleship will often be portrayed as a course of study you go through as a new Christian to grasp the basics of the faith.  Certainly these are both possible uses, but the question we have to ask is, is this the way it was conceived within the New Testament? 

 

The first thing we have to say is that this is reflective of the practices of the conversionist evangelistical models that came out of the revivalism of the Second Great Awakening in the preaching of Charles Finney and Lorenzo Dow, Joseph Smith, and many others.  It is certainly ok to speak of someone’s initial conversion and embrace of the Christian faith as “conversion”, though my concern is that which I already pointed out in the previous installment of this series of discussions, that within this revivalist tradition of Evangelicalism, there is the tendency to place the emphasis on this initial experience, and not the ongoing process.

 

Note how in the great commission of Matt 28:19-20, Jesus tells the disciples to go “make disciples.”  In fact the only command here is “make disciples.”  But what follows is instructive. What does Jesus envision this to look like?  He says “baptizing” and “teaching”, which implies an ongoing process of baptizing new disciples and constantly instructing those who already are disciples.  In other words, Jesus’ discipleship vision is OJT, that is constant “on the job training” in being a Christ follower.

 

In the 1st century Hebrew culture, the disciple (Greek: matates and Hebrew: talmid) was a person who attached himself to a teacher (Heb: rab) by baptism and committed himself to the teachings and “disciplines” that were taught him by his teacher.  This similar perspective is in view with Jesus.  Of course there is some great differences here in that Jesus had already been resurrected when he gave the great commission to go make disciples of all nations.  That in and of itself as well, making disciples of “all nations” rather than just Jews, was a radical departure from typical practice of Second Temple Judaism.

 

Here is my point though. When someone became a disciple, they became a follower of that person’s teaching, and for the Christian faith, this assumed belief in the message and regeneration and conversion along with it.  However, it is not that inward conversion that gives you the right to be a disciple, but the other way around.  The person who responds to the call of discipleship would be treated as a “believer” until they expressed otherwise.  What is important is that while every baptized disciple is given the benefit of the doubt and “treated” as “in Christ”, the salvation of the individual was never so taken for granted as to neglect their souls.  In fact, there was a constant posture of seeking to nurture and promote the personal conversion of the membership of the Church.  In other words, because someone was a disciple, it was not blanketly assumed that they were all “converted” in the innermost sense of personal regeneration of the Holy Spirit.  Consider for a moment the following verses:

 

 

1Cor. 1:18   For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

 

1Cor. 15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

 

 

2Cor. 2:15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,

 

 

These are only a sample of the many verses I could have chosen from.  But what all these have in common is the idea of what I call the already/not-yet.  That is to say, Christians, as part of Christ’s church, participate in the body and life of Christ, but there is still a “not-yet” to it.  In all three of these verses and many more, Paul speaks of “being saved”, implying a process by which Christians are actively pursuing the Gospel in faith and hope. 

 

However this should not be misinterpreted that Christians are to pursue salvation through works.  The only way to approach God and receive his justification is by faith.  But as I pointed out in the previous installment, that faith is a living, active, and pursuing faith.  It is not a faith in a spiritual experience in times past, or that you prayed a certain formulaic prayer, or were baptized, or any of the other things Christians have replaced faith in Christ with.  The Gospel and biblical faith calls us to an ongoing practice of faith, that is a trust in the objective work of Jesus on the cross for our sins.  Jesus is not a talisman that we can put in our pocket and feel like everything is “all set now” so we can go on with all our other worldly pursuits without the distraction of worrying about the eternal destination of our souls.  Please let me be clear, if you see the Christian faith this way, that you did your part and now you can go about your life as you see fit, you have missed the Gospel and your eternal destination is in danger. 

 

The Gospel will cost you everything; the surrender of all your idols, all your desires, ambitions, and lust.  You cannot pursue the world and Jesus at the same time the way you cannot travel both north and south at the same time.  They are opposite directions.

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