What is Christian discipleship?

To abide in His word, then, is the condition of being in truth Christ's disciple. Others may be interested greatly, but they soon grow weary, or turn ere long to other objects. Christ's disciple cleaves to His word, and finds fresh springs in what first attracted. His word proves itself thus Divine, as it is faith which abides in it, and the truth is thus not only learned but known. Vagueness and uncertainty disappear, while the truth, instead of gendering bondage, like the law, makes the soul free, whatever its previous slavery. There is growth in the truth and liberty by it. Law deals with the corrupt and proud will of man to condemn it on God's part, as is right; the truth communicates the knowledge of Himself as revealed in His word, and thus gives life and liberty: privileges unintelligible to the natural man, who hates the sovereign grace of God as much as he exalts and loves himself, while he despises and distrusts others. Man's only thought, therefore, of obtaining righteousness is through the law. They know not the virtue of the truth, and dread liberty as though it must end in licence; while at the same time they are proud of their own position, if it were inalienable, and God were their servant, not they bound to be His. Hence the Jews answered Jesus, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone: how sayest Thou, Ye shall become free?"

In John 8:31 we have another trait of true discipleship, "if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." In the former chapter the disciple is marked as one given to Christ by the Father, and receiving life from Him; in this (8) he is known by continuing in the word. This is the disciples' responsibility, through the pare and unsolicited grace of the Father; the word in which the disciples are to continue is in connection with Christ being "lifted up" — an expression which had no doubtful meaning to the Jew. It meant a shameful death, the cross, the death of a malefactor. They should know who He was when they lifted Him up; but would those who then believed on Him continue in His word, as the One who only spoke and did in obedience to the Father? Would they so continue when He would be condemned and crucified between two thieves? His discipleship involved this. When that hour came even the true-hearted failed, the sheep were scattered but the risen Lord gathered them again. Abiding in the word is more than knowing the truth intellectually: the essential point is obedience to the truth, a life conformed by the truth and marked by the holiness which grace demands. For knowledge of the truth may be separated from obedience to it. A man may be orthodox in doctrine and lax in practice, or outwardly unimpeachable in life but unsound in fundamental truth. In neither case is there a true disciple.

μαθητής This word signifies strictly 'a learner' or 'pupil.' The Pharisees had such, whom they taught to fast. Matt. 22:16; Mark 2:18. John the Baptist had disciples, who likewise fasted. Matt. 9:14; Luke 5:33; John 3:25. The Lord Jesus had His disciples: the apostles whom He chose to be with Him are called His 'twelve disciples,' Matt. 11:1; but in other places the term is applied to all who followed the Lord, many of whom 'went back and walked no more with him.' John 6:60-66. When great multitudes followed the Lord, He turned to them and bade them count the cost of really following Him. Such an one must hate (in comparison with Christ) all his natural relations and his own life also. He must take up his cross and follow Christ, and he must forsake all that he had, or he could not be His disciple. Luke 14:26-33. On another occasion Jesus said to the Jews that believed on Him, "If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples." John 8:31. It was true association in heart with a rejected Christ. Matt. 10:24-25; John 15:8.

The Path of Suffering (v. 23-27). The Lord opens His instruction with the words, "If any man will come after Me." Touching words that presume He has gone before and marked out a path for His own, and, drawn by love, that they would seek to tread where He has trod. At the entrance of this path we find these searching words, "Let him deny himself." Men speak of self-denial, and have self-denial weeks, by which they mean denying themselves certain things for a limited period of time to help some benevolent cause. This, however, is the very opposite of denying self, for it rather adds to self-complacency and the exaltation of self. The denial of self is not simply denying ourselves certain things, but the denial of the man that lusts after these. The denial of self is the ignoring of self altogether in order to serve others in love. Such was the path that the Lord ever trod while passing through this world of need. Moreover, as rejected by this world, Christ is in the outside place of reproach, and those who follow Him will find that they too will have to face reproach. Thus the Lord exhorts the one that comes after Him to "take up his cross daily." For the Lord the cross meant not only suffering and shame from the hands of men, but also the far deeper sufferings from the hand of God. He was alone in His sufferings at the hand of a holy God, when made sin; but in His sufferings from men we can in our little measure share, and He has left us the perfect example of such sufferings for we are told to consider Him that "endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God" (Heb. 12:2). We are exhorted "To go forth … to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." Moreover, this reproach is to be taken up "daily." This is a searching word, for it is comparatively easy to make some great sacrifice on some special occasion, but the "daily" acceptance of the path of reproach and suffering for Christ's sake in everyday life calls for great grace. But how is it possible to deny self and accept reproach? Only as we have an object that is greater than self before us. Thus the Lord adds the words, "Follow Me." Furthermore, to follow after Christ must mean the letting go of the present life. Whoever, believer or unbeliever, lives only for the present life, is living a life that he must inevitably lose, for at best it is but a passing life. To have Christ before us, is to live a life that will never pass away: — a life that can be enjoyed now, but will only be known in all its fulness in life's eternal home. Lastly, it is impossible to follow Christ and at the same time walk with the world and seek its advantages. Paul, with Christ as his life, could say, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." Even for the unbeliever what advantage is there in gaining the whole world for a few fleeting years and then to be lost for eternity? For the believer to associate with the world and seek its advantages and honours must mean the loss of all present joy in the Lord, the end of all testimony for the Lord, and the forfeiture of His approval in the day "When He shall come in His own glory and in His Father's, and of the holy angels." Thus to follow truly a rejected Christ will mean, as to this present world, the refusal of self, the reproach of men, the loss of the present life with the world and its advantages.

The force of "deny himself" is hardly expressed by "self-denial," which is the denying oneself of something. What the Lord speaks of is not that but the denial, or the saying of "no," to oneself. Also, "take up his cross" does not mean bearing trials and troubles merely. The man who in those days took up his cross was being led to execution. He was a man who had to accept death at the hands of the world. To say "no" to oneself is to accept death internally, on one's own spirit: to take up one's cross is to accept death externally at the hands of the world. That is what discipleship must mean, since we follow the Christ who died, rejected of the world.

If any one therefore thinks of following the leading of the Lord Jesus, let him be fully prepared. he is called upon first to deny himself (v.23), which means not merely giving up certain advantages, but giving up himself, to deny himself any title of making decisions merely on his own. It means denying himself any rights as belonging to earth. He is to take up his cross daily and follow Christ. Matthew 16:24 does not include the word "daily," for there the initial decision is emphasized, but Luke emphasizes a daily practice.

On the Lord's departure great multitudes go with Him, to whom He turns with the words, "If any man come to me, and shall not hate377 his own father, and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters; yea and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple." They might have thought that at any rate they would treat the Lord better than His message — so little does man know of himself. The Lord would not permit that the multitude then following Him should flatter themselves that they at least were willing to partake of the supper, that they were incapable of treating God with the contempt described in the parable. So the Lord tells them what following Himself involves. The disciple must follow Christ so simply and decidedly that it would seem to other eyes a complete neglect of natural ties, and an indifference to the nearest and strongest claims of kin. Not that the Lord calls for want of affection; but so it might and must look to those who are left behind in His name. The attractive power of grace must be greater than all natural fetters, or any other claims of whatsoever kind, over him who would be His disciple. And more than this: it is a question of carrying one's cross and going after Him. "Whoever does not carry his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." It is not enough to come to Him at first, but we must follow Him day by day. Whoever does not this cannot be His disciple. Thus in verse 26 we see the forsaking of all for Christ, and in verse 27 the following Christ with pain and suffering and going on in it.377a

Again, the Lord does not hide the difficulties of the way, but sets them out in two comparisons. The first is of a man intending to build a tower, who had not the wisdom to count the cost before beginning. So it would be with souls now. Undoubtedly it is a great thing to follow Jesus to heaven, but then, it costs something in this world.378 It is not all joy; but it is well and wise to look at the other side also. Then the Lord gives a further comparison. It is like a king going to war with one who has twice as many forces. Unless I am well backed up, it is impossible for me to resist him who comes against me with twice my array; much less can I make head against him. The inevitable consequence of not having God for us is, that when the enemy is a great way off, we have to send an ambassage and desire conditions of peace. But is it not peace with Satan, and everlasting ruin? "Thus, then, every one of you who forsakes not all his own possessions cannot be my disciple." A man should be prepared for the worst that man and Satan can do. It is always true, though not always apparent; but Scripture cannot be broken, and in the course of a disciple's experience a time comes when he is thus tried one way or another. It is well therefore to look all thoroughly in the face; but then to refuse Jesus and His call to follow, not to be His disciple, is to be lost for ever.379

Let us answer these questions by turning to Luke 14 and reading the paragraph, Luke 14:25-35. The same thoughts re-appear here: "IF any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot by My disciple." Those four closing words are thrice repeated (vv. 26, 27, and 33). Not, mark you, "he cannot be saved," but "he cannot be My DISCIPLE."

Now of all the four, Luke's Gospel is the one which emphasizes grace. Indeed in Luke 14 the very paragraph which precedes the one referred to contains the parable of the "great supper" (Luke 14:15-24), which is a marvellous unfolding of the grace of God. Is it not worthy of note, then, that, having unfolded divine grace in such a way as to bring great multitudes about Him eager to hear, the Lord turns round upon them and tests their reality by proposing to them the terms of discipleship; and shall we not do well, while observing the distinction between them, to keep them together in the order in which He put them?

The Lord then emphasized that one cannot be His disciple apart from forsaking all that he has. He does not mean that one should literally ignore his wife, his children or other natural responsibilities (1Tim.5:8), but to allow none of them to have a prior place. Christ must be first.

The third claim that the Lord makes on His disciples in Luke 14 is found in the words, "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). No one, or nothing that we possess, can be allowed to hinder the true disciple from following in the steps of his Master and Lord. When the Lord said to Levi, "Follow me," the call brought with it the power to follow, "and he left all, rose up, and followed" Jesus (Luke 5:27-28). In Jesus, Levi found a new object, the attraction of whom enabled him to leave all and take the path of discipleship.

There was the ruler in Luke 18 who desired to have eternal life, but who was not prepared to take the way of life, for Jesus said to him, "Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor … and come, follow me" (verse 22). In Mark the word is "come, take up the cross, and follow me" (Mark 10:21). Alas! there are many like the rich ruler who have their heart in their possessions, not prepared to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Not only Levi but Simon Peter and his fellow disciples had taken the path of true discipleship, for after the rich man had gone away Peter said to the Lord, "Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee" (Luke 18:28). How very touching this must have been to the heart of the Master, who knew perfectly what His grace had wrought in the devoted hearts of His own, and who encouraged them by telling them of the "manifold more" that would be theirs in the present life, and of eternal life for them in the age to come.