Can one be a believer in Jesus and not be a disciple of Jesus?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
This is a continuation of about four previous Little Lessons that have been on this subject
of discipleship and it's kind of logically led us to this point because we covered three
of the requirements that Jesus said one must meet to qualify to be his disciple.
They're all pretty demanding requirements, to sum them all up as they're described by
Jesus in Luke chapter 14, we must love him supremely, more than anybody else, more than
ourselves, more than our own life, more than our own convenience, more than our own agenda,
more than any material pursuit or possession, Jesus must be absolute Lord and master of
our life and we love him like God wants us to love him, with all of our heart, mind,
soul and strength.
So because of those requirements to be a disciple, is often questioned whether or not it's possible
to be a believer in Jesus and not be a disciple of Jesus, because we know that salvation is
a free gift and Jesus died for our sins and we can't earn it and so on and so forth, but
these requirements for discipleship sound like there's some things that we have to do.
So a theology has been created that creates a dichotomy, that one can be a believer in
Christ but not necessarily be a disciple of Christ, that's an optional second step that
one might take beyond just believing in Jesus, becoming his disciple.
Now, is this idea supported in scripture?
Well, I'm afraid that it isn't supported in scripture.
In fact, it isn't supported by a shred of scripture, it's just the invention of some
theological ... excuse me, reason that when examined in the light of scripture, falls
very far short.
So can start by asking ourselves the question, is it possible to believe in Jesus but not
love Jesus?
I think we'd all agree that that's an absurd, preposterous idea, that you could believe
in him and not love him.
I think the scripture is also very clear on that.
So to believe in him is to love him but Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments."
So if to believe in Jesus is to love Jesus, then to believe in Jesus is to love Jesus
and keep his commandments because if you do love him, you'll keep his commandments.
So we can see that to say that you could believe in Jesus and not obey Jesus is just as preposterous
as to say you can believe in Jesus and not love Jesus.
Right?
Right.
Well, all that Jesus said in his requirements to be a disciple are all issues of the heart
that result in devotion and obedience and people stumble over that of course and the
theology but the solution is not to ignore what Jesus said and stick to your guns of
your theology, it's to adjust your theology so it's totally in line with all the scripture
and not just parts of scripture that we take out, we cherry pick and say, "Oh I like that
one, I'll put that one up on my refrigerator door."
Or, "I'll underline that one in my Bible because that's one that I really like, I'll underline
that one."
It's funny but it's actually sad, we ought to go back and read all the verses of the
Bible that we didn't underline or highlight because those are just as inspired and just
as important as the one that we've underlined that we want to emphasize for some reason.
Okay, so to believe in Jesus equals to love Jesus, equals to obey Jesus and this is why
scripture is replete with statements that are the equivalent of if we truly believe
in Jesus, it's expressed by our obedience to his commandments.
There's a list of proofs of that.
So that answers the question, can you be a believer of Jesus and not be a disciple of
Jesus?
Well, nothing in scripture that would ever support such an idea as that and we just spent
several Little Lessons looking over what Jesus said about being his disciple and he said,
"If anyone wishes to come after me," so the invitation is, "If you want to come after
me, this is what you have to do or else you won't be my disciple."
He ended it all up by saying, "If you're not my disciple, you're utterly worthless and
useless to me."
To think that you can be worthless to Jesus and useless to Jesus and on the safe and secure
road to eternal life would seem doubtful, right?
Especially in light of all the other scriptural truths.
Those who have come up with this dichotomous theology that one can be a believer of Jesus
and not be a disciple of Jesus, well how about the great commission?
"Go unto all the world make disciples," that's what Jesus wants, that's undeniable, not a
word there about converts or believers, "Go make disciples.
Teaching them to obey all that I commanded you."
But before that he said, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I grant you."
So no one can deny that Jesus said to baptize the disciples.
Well it's funny that these guys who have a dichotomous theology that you can be a believer
in Christ and not be a disciple of Christ, baptize believers who they would readily say
are not really disciples.
Well Jesus didn't say to baptize believers, he said baptize disciples, "Go unto all the
world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to obey all that I command you."
No one can deny that in the Book of Acts, people who made professions of faith in Jesus
Christ, believing in him, therefore loving him, therefore committing themselves to obey
him, they baptized them.
They baptized them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
They baptized everyone who believed.
And by the same token, this is why the gospel that was preached by John the Baptist, preached
by Jesus, preached by all the Apostles, included a call to repentance.
Turn from your sins.
Stop doing the things that you know that you shouldn't be doing.
Start doing the things that you're neglecting to do that you know should be doing in obedience
to your God-given conscience and the commandments of Jesus Christ, which we're going to teach
you.
So these guys, some of them are so far off base that they actually eliminate the very
Biblical, undeniably, irrefutable scriptural mandate to preach baptism and to preach repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
That's what Jesus said to his disciples in the end of Luke.
He said, "Go, preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
That is the deal that God is offering, is the forgiveness of sins to those who repent,
turning way from his sin.
Come on, think about how silly it would be to say, "Well God's just going to forgive
you so you can keep on doing the things that he just forgave you of."
What?
That doesn't make any sense at all, okay?
In keeping with the same theme and in closing for today's Little Lesson, James said emphatically,
in no uncertain terms, "Faith without words is dead useless and it cannot save anybody."
So, end of story.
Now, in our next Little Lesson, I'll have even more biblical proof that exposes the
erroneous idea that one can be a believer in Christ and not be a disciple of Christ.
If you're not a disciple of Christ, you really don't believe in Bible Jesus.
You might believe in American Jesus or some other idol that doesn't really exist, a false
God that you call Jesus.
I mean, you could carve out of a tree log an idol and call it Jesus and that doesn't
make you a Christian, does it?
No, you got to have some semblance to the real Jesus if you're really going to be a
real Christian, a real believer, a real disciple.
All right?
Right, I hope to see you next time.
Thank you so much for joining me on today's Little Lesson.