Small Steps in Discipleship to Christ: Trust, the Response to God's Love

Trust Jesus.  Hospitality is my job in discipleship.  As I grow to understand God's devotion to me, hospitality is a natural outcome.  Story upon story reflect this understanding of what it means to "receive Christ."  From Jesus' story the owner of the vineyard who sends his son, hoping they will receive him to Jesus' teaching that "he who receives me receives the one who sent me,"  Jesus explains a humble God, who knocks at our doors, hoping that we will let him into our lives.  Such hospitality to God is what motivates and invigorates my love for other people as well.  "Anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."  (Matthew 10:42)

This is why God "gave his only begotten Son."  His love is one that hopes to be received.  His Word made flesh came to us to be invited in.  His Spirit was sent from this glorified man to scour the earth for those who would welcome God sincerely from their hearts.  The reception of Christ relies mostly on what I think of the God who sent him.  His devoted love is what lays the foundation for my welcoming Christ into my life.  Jesus' living and teaching demonstrate how God really is.  His Spirit takes that teaching and life and immerses me in it, making it "real" to me.

"Whosoever believes" in Jesus as a Teacher trusts what he says, learning it, and practicing it.  Anyone who has taken a class knows the difference between trusting a teacher and pleasing a teacher.  I can work to please a teacher and not trust him.  By trusting a teacher, I also will please him.  Jesus is like this.  He doesn't want me merely to try to please him by doing what he says.  He wants me to trust him and what he says.  The pleasing and doing will follow the trust.

 "Whosoever believes" in Jesus as a Friend confides in him and listens for his comfort and answers.  I must learn to trust that Jesus is on my side.  He said that he did not come to condemn, but to save.  His work has got him the reputation of being a "friend of sinners."  Sinners can trust Jesus to talk with them, be with them, and hear them when they call.  The gospel is an open door for sinners, whether recovering of not.

 "Whosoever believes" in Jesus as his Savior admits his hopelessness without him and embraces his hope with him.  Trusting a savior begins with seeing my lost and broken situation.  One thing will not change through all eternity: Jesus saves.  This marvel only deepens as I grow.  I see that his salvation is not the mere removal of guilt, but the removal of sin from my life with a promise of perfection.  I deepen in my trust of a savior as I grow in my awareness of his love for me in spite of me.

 I receive Jesus as Lord when I set my mind and heart on things above and beyond this age and leave it behind.  Jesus is Lord.  His name is above every name, meaning his nature and character define all reality as I know it.  He created everything.  He sustains everything.  He will bring everything to its conclusion.  In Christ all wisdom begins and ends.  Everything I see is temporary and passing away.  A new age is coming with Jesus as the Ruler and Lord.  I must live in this age holding things lightly and clinging to the things that are above and beyond it, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father."  (Colossians 3:1)

 None of these are mutually exclusive, but all work together.  The separation is arbitrary since I am welcoming and trusting a person, Jesus, and not just something about him, in my life.  All of these pictures show how great God's gift of Christ is to me and how satisfying and full my relationship with him can be.

Do you find yourself pleasing Jesus with trusting him?  Do you ever find yourself professing what you don't really believe?  God wants you to trust him.  What would it take for you to trust him?

Small Steps into Discipleship to Christ: God's Love Expressed

Jesus is the Answer.  Who is this "only begotten Son" of God?  What has God given to me in his love?

God gave his Son primarily for three reasons.  The first is so that I might become like him.  Jesus put flesh and bones to the commandments of God.  He came as the Teacher.  His words are Spirit and life.  (John 6)  Honestly learned and practiced, they bring me into a new way of living, called eternal.  It begins, but has no end.  It is continual existence with God, who is eternal.  It is from age to age, outlasting even the known universe itself.

Second, God gave his Son so that I might be redeemed.  Jesus is the sacrifice necessary to pay for my sins.  He is the only effective sacrifice.  I offered myself to sin as a slave and could not hope to be free to come to God without Jesus.  He came as the Savior.  He also came as my Friend.  Before he was my Savior he was my Friend, because Jesus is the friend of sinners.  He befriended me and when the time came he redeemed me, he bought me back from my sin by paying the penalty I had earned.  My sin meant suffering and death.  He took them upon himself.

Third, God gave his Son so that my world might be restored.  Jesus is victorious over sin, Satan, and death.  The old order of things is passing away now.  No longer is sin central to life.  No longer does Satan hold sway over my mind and my body.  No longer is death the inevitable ruler of this world.  Jesus is Lord through his death and  resurrection.  He overcomes everything that opposes light and life in this world.  This age continues to limp along, but is coming to an end.  Jesus has begun that end.

God gave me Jesus for my redemption.  I am brought back through his friendship.  I am bought back through his saving grace.  God gave me Jesus as the perfect person.  He teaches me to be like him.  God gave me Jesus so my life and my world would be recovered and restored.  He is Lord of all things and will bring them all into submission through the power of his grace and mercy.  Friend.  Savior.  Teacher.  Lord.  This is my Jesus.

Which of these aspects of Christ do you find most easy to receive?  Friend?  Savior?  Teacher?  Lord?  Which is the hardest?  What makes it difficult to receive Jesus this way?