Discipleship 101
a beginner's guide to
Christianity
Chapter 20
The goal of the Christian life
What is the goal of the
Christian life, and how do we help one another get there?
One old catechism says that
our chief goal in life is to glorify and enjoy God forever. This is true.
Scripture says that we were created for God’s glory and to proclaim his praises
(1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 1:11-12; 1 Peter 2:9). We exist to worship God,
and in order to be genuine, this worship must come from the heart. It must be a
genuine expression of our real feelings. We adore God above everything else, and
we submit to his every command.
How do we help people get to
this point? I think we are simply unable to achieve such a task. It is God who
changes people’s hearts; it is God who converts the soul, who leads people to
repentance, who touches people with love and grace. We can describe God’s
amazing love and his astonishing grace and we can set an example of adoration
and dedication to our Savior, but after all is said and done, it is God who
changes each person’s heart.
Yet another way to describe our goal in life is to
become more like Christ—and here I think we can briefly sketch some practical
ways in which we can help one another as we grow toward that goal.
It is God’s plan for each of
us that we “be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29). Even in this
life, we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2
Corinthians 3:18). Paul labored with the Galatians “until Christ is formed in
you” (Galatians 4:19). He told the Ephesians that our goal is “attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
In Christ, we have a new
identity and a new purpose for living. The new self is “to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). What a concept! We are to be
like God not just in the resurrection, but even, to the extent possible, in this
life. We are becoming like Jesus, who showed us what God is like when living in
the flesh. We are not just hoping to be like him in the next life—we are already
to be like him in this life.
Obviously, we do not need to
look like him physically. We do not try to match his carpentry skills, his
language skills, his knowledge of agriculture or Roman history. Rather, we are
to be like him “in true righteousness and holiness.” In our behavior and in our
devotion to God, we are to be like Jesus Christ.
Be transformed!
How is the transformation
accomplished in our lives? Paul exhorts, “Be transformed by the renewing of your
mind” (Romans 12:2). Our new self “is being renewed in knowledge in the image of
its Creator” (Colossians 3:10). Both heart and mind are involved. Behavior is,
too. These three work together in those who are being transformed by Christ.
The mind alone is not enough.
If only the mind is involved, we may be like demons who know truths about God
but do not obey him. Simply knowing the truth is not enough. We must not only
hear, but we must also do (Matthew 7:24).
Behavior alone is not enough. If we go through the
motions without really believing in God, we are play-actors. And even if we
believe in God and do the right actions, if our heart is far from God, our
worship is in vain. If we sing God’s praises without really feeling any
affection for him, we are hypocrites.
In short, we need right
beliefs, right actions, and right emotions. If the heart is right and our
beliefs are right, then right behavior will be the result. We want right
behavior, but we need to remember that it is the result of other things, and not
the ultimate goal.
Now, as I asked in my
introduction, how do we help one another grow toward our Christian goal? How do
we help one another become transformed to become more like Christ in
righteousness and holiness?
Several steps
I see three or four steps in
the process. First, there is conversion. We can preach the gospel—and woe to us
if we do not!—but God is the one who must soften the hearts and produce a
response. We should paint the gospel message as clearly as we can, in as many
ways as we can, with biblical terms and with modern terms, but we do not claim
credit for the effectiveness of God’s message. We just want to be faithful
stewards, delivering the truth that God so loved the world that he sent his Son
to rescue us from our sin.
Second, there is nurture.
Jesus commanded his disciples to make more disciples, to make more students, to
teach them the things he commanded. Paul instructed Timothy, Titus, and others
to teach the truths of the Christian faith. Doctrine is important, and this is
an area that Scripture specifically instructs us to work on. Every church leader
should strive for accuracy in doctrine, as defined by Scripture.
I wish that doctrinal
orthodoxy could be easier to achieve. We all need to distinguish essential
doctrines from nonessential doctrines. We cannot make every doctrinal conclusion
a test of true Christianity. Even some of the “essential” doctrines are not
essential for a person’s salvation, but they are essential for a church to be
faithful transmitters of God’s message.
Third, in addition to
doctrinal nurture, there is also nurture of the heart. This is why Christian
growth should occur in community with other Christians. Social
experiences, that is, the things we do together, help us grow
emotionally. These may be positive emotions such as love and forgiveness, or the
negative emotions that result from the sin that inevitably comes with
interpersonal relationships. These painful feelings probably help us grow much
more than the positive feelings do as we learn to cope with them and work
through them with God’s loving support and help.
The social/emotional nurture
cannot be done in a book—it is done locally, through small groups and other
informal relationships, guided and modeled by pastoral leadership. The pastor
helps people grow not by doing everything for them (even if that were possible),
but by teaching and equipping members to do it themselves, for one another. The
best quality of pastoral care is found in small groups. Members who choose to be
in a small group are in effect choosing to get themselves more intimately
involved in the pastoral care of the church. Small groups help make a church
healthy.
Behavioral changes
When members are growing in
doctrinal understanding, coming to know God more, and in emotional
maturity, coming to love God more, they will be growing in other ways,
too. Their behavior will be changing. They will be treating one another with
more love, patience, joy, peace, humility and forgiveness. They will be avoiding
sexual immorality, greed, and dishonesty. The more we know and love God, the
more we live like him. The heart change comes before the change in behavior. The
heart change is what causes the behavior change. The heart change is what gives
room for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.
These behavior changes are
rooted in a changed heart, but the process is often slow. Pastors have a
responsibility to continually encourage behavior changes so that Christians new
and old, strong and weak, will be encouraged to live up to the new life God is
creating in them. God is working in us, but he does not do it for us. He changes
our hearts and gives us what it takes to respond to him in righteousness, but he
expects us to exercise the faith to use this “freedom to obey” that he
has won for us.
People who flaunt their
immorality are not members in good standing. We welcome repentant and struggling
sinners, but not unrepentant, uncaring ones. Our model is Jesus Christ, who
welcomed white-collar criminals and prostitutes, but did not welcome people who
thought they had no need for repentance.
As we strive to imitate our Savior and Teacher, Jesus
Christ, we need to look especially at his relationship with the Father, and his
relationship with the people around him. His relationship with the Father was
characterized by prayer and by his thorough knowledge of and reliance on
Scripture. Prayer and study have for millennia formed the core of Christian
spiritual growth. They are important! Why? Not as another “duty” or legalism.
But as the way of being with God so that we can hear his voice in our lives and
be reminded of our true condition: We are redeemed from sin, we belong to him,
our salvation is secure in him, he loves us infinitely, he is our ever-present
Helper and he will never leave nor forsake us.
Jesus was committed to
people—he loved the lost, and he castigated people who thought they were
religiously superior to others (a feeling that usually stems from a
works-oriented approach to worship). He was committed to a close relationship
among believers—his disciples related not just individually to him as students
to their teacher, but also to one another. Jesus formed them into a group, a
body, that would in time give itself mutual support, a community that would
reach out to others and invite them in.
Joseph Tkach
To
the next article in this series: The purpose of blessings |
