One of the most important steps one can take into genuine, meaningful, life-changing discipleship to Jesus is to make the paradigm switch from Jesus being merely a nice religious figure to one who actually knew what He was talking about. The need is there to begin to view Jesus as an intelligent person who has the most important information on the most important subjects of life.
If we would view Him as encompassing truth outside the religious realm, like His first followers understood Him, we would see one in whom dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If He does have that capacity for wisdom and knowledge, then you can begin to understand why He said if you learn to put into practice the things that I have taught, you will know the truth about life and the truth about life will set you free.
Who else can you turn to, realistically, in order to learn how to become a fully formed human being living in this world? To be free to be the kind of person we are meant to be? Who else would be your teacher? Really, the list is very, very, short.
Take any of them and ask if this would be true: If you put my teachings into practice, then you will be my students and I will be your teacher. You will come to know the truth about life and this world and in knowing that truth, you will never again be ruled by unsatisfied desires and will find fulfillment in becoming the fully formed human being you were designed to be.
That’s really the test isn’t it? Putting the things into practice. Who is it that offers life to the fullest extent? Jesus could say as an intelligent human being who knew a thing or two about life, ‘If you learn to put into practice the things that I teach you, your life will be like a house built upon solid rock. Even the most devastating of life’s challenges won’t be able to tear it down’.
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Brian,
ReplyDeleteIf I can share a few thoughts to what you wrote…
I think about the paradigm shift you are speaking of and see it represented in my own growing awareness of the kingdom verses mere religion in the following example:
The meaning so often attributed to 'repentance' is all too often taught as a "turning away from sin" - which somehow always keeps sin as the focus and thus ‘avoiding sin’ becomes the barometer for our righteousness. But when we make the shift from this type of religious duty to a Kingdom shift, we see that repentance is a re-turning to the person God has made us to be. It is to see ourselves as image bearers and beloved children of God called to a purpose and way of life that brings us out of the chaos of worldliness and into the ‘Shalom’ – the created order, harmony and wholeness of God.
When we put into practice the avoidance or minimization of sin we have done something good. But when we put into practice and begin to see the Way of God, His kingdom and seek His righteousness, we will automatically move away from sin and all the more move towards the light of Christ and restoration. The difference is subtle but it is everything.
mike