Why Discipleship Is Not Preparation for Eternal Life

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR 1 John 5:13–15 (NIV) I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. CONSIDER John continues his march toward a verdict. Yesterday his closing argument turned toward the big point of the whole letter. He has taken on the false teachers so strongly because they were steering the young church away from the main thing. In the end, this is not a prosecution of the false teachers but a proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what’s the big point and the main thing? Thanks for asking. It’s eternal life. The gospel is all about eternal life. As I wrote in the last chapter, we’ve really misunderstood eternal life. In one of Jesus’ nine recorded prayers, the longest one, known as his high priestly prayer (see John 17), Jesus prays as follows: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3). We talk about the gospel as justification, sanctification, salvation from sin, deliverance from death, the abundant life, becoming a new creation, and to be sure, it is all these things. But all these things can be summarized in the two words eternal life. John wants those who have believed in Jesus to understand the new truth about themselves: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Note where he goes next. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (vv. 14–15) Note that he’s talking about eternal life in the framework of discipleship—in this instance, prayer. Eternal life is not in the category of funeral preparations and what happens after one dies. Eternal life is the whole tamale. In fact, I’m beginning to think of discipleship in a new way. Discipleship is nothing more or less than the retrofitting of a human being with the gift of eternal life. Eternal life was lost as a consequence of the fall from grace. It is now gained as the gift of God, given to those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. Discipleship is the process of learning to express in reality what has, in fact, become real and true. Discipleship is not preparation for eternal life; it’s practicing eternal life. What if this is the organizing principle or the governing dynamic of all of life—eternal life? We need to know we possess eternal life, and then we need to be trained in how to fully live into eternal life. Because we have largely thought of eternal life as what happens when we die, we have never really gotten around to living into it before our death. This concept of eternal life now helps make sense of all of the New Testament teaching on dying before you die. Here’s a representative example. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you. So then, brothers [and sisters], we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:10–13 HCSB) Engaging with Scripture, praying, fasting, encouraging one another in faith, and receiving the Lord’s Supper all become the ways and means of nourishing the eternal life within us. Living generously, serving extravagantly, and loving boldly become the ways and means of nourishing the eternal life among us. Eternal life is not something we are preparing to receive later. It is the right here, right now extraordinary life of God indwelling and illuminating the lives of ordinary people like you and me. PRAY Lord Jesus, you are the Eternal Life and to know you is to experience eternal life. In thinking this is something I gain only after death, I have missed it in my life. Turn that around in me today. Open the eyes of my heart to see and hear and experience what I have known but not understood. Come, Holy Spirit, and make me truly alive with the Life that is life. I pray in your name, Jesus. Amen.