I am currently in Nashville, participating in a four-day gathering of a ministry team of the United Methodist Church called the General Board of Discipleship.
It’s an important word, isn’t it: discipleship. Making disciples is what Jesus instructed his followers to do in his “great commission.” Making disciples has been the church’s governing priority for nearly two-thousand years. And making disciples is at the heart of United Methodism’s clearly articulated mission, which is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
I suppose that it is not all that surprising that, at a gathering of the General Board of Discipleship, I find myself pondering what faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ means and what it looks like.
Over the centuries of Christian theology, Christian thinkers have perpetuated what I consider to be a misguided and unfortunate debate concerning the nature of discipleship. The debate is normally referred to as the faith versus works debate, and it hinges on this theological question: Are we saved by faith or are we saved by our good works? People on both sides of the debate cite particular scriptures to support their arguments. The people who believe that we are saved by faith alone (in Latin, “sola fide”) are quick to cite Ephesians 2:8-9, which reads this way: “By grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not our own doing, but the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” That’s a pretty clear teaching, right?
But hold on. On the other side of the debate are the people who maintain that salvation is received—not earned, mind you, but RECEIVED—through the doing of good and compassionate works. They hang their hermeneutical hats on Matthew 25:31-46, a passage of Scripture in which Jesus makes clear that, in the final judgment, our eternal reward or punishment is dependent upon whether or not we have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited the prisoner. In Matthew 25 Jesus seems to teach that works are indeed instrumental in the eternal salvation that God has made possible.
For centuries, the theological debate has raged on, spawning hugely unfortunate extremes and unnecessary distortions of biblical truth. Interestingly, in the New Testament book of James, it is made crystal clear to us that debating over faith and works is something like debating over blood flow and breathing. Which would you rather do without, the flow of blood through your veins or the intake of oxygen? That would be a ridiculous conversation. Life depends upon both of these processes. In much the same way, salvation, according to the book of James, depends upon both faith AND good works. They are interdependent manifestations of God’s saving grace and are inseparably joined in the life of discipleship:
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:24, 26)
The great theologian and ecclesiastical reformer Martin Luther once described the book of James as “an epistle of straw” because of his belief that James confuses the issue and de-emphasizes the centrality of faith. In truth, however, James simply illuminates a truth that those seeking to understand discipleship cannot afford to ignore: Faith, without works, is dead. On the other hand, good works, without faith, are random, unsubstantiated, and devoid of their appropriate motive.
Perhaps a corporeal metaphor is best here: Faith and works are the two spiritual arms with which we embrace God’s precious gift of salvation—a gift far too valuable to be received with only one of those arms.
Return with me, then, to a foundational question: What is a disciple of Jesus Christ? One biblical response to that question is this: A disciple is a person of faith, but not just any faith. More specifically, a disciple is a person whose faith is nothing less than a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and whose life accommodates that relationship through the rendering of good and merciful works. The doing of such works becomes a nothing less than a salvific conduit through which the justifying and sanctifying grace of God makes its way into the hearts of those who are ready to embrace that grace with both of their spiritual arms.
Those are the humble thoughts on discipleship from a humble pewboy in Nashville.
Now, pass the okra and grits.
Thanks Eric! I’ve been saying for a long time salvation isn’t the same without the good works it inspires.
Safe journeys!
Wow, what a way to put it. You need blood and you need oxygen, I have a srong faith and am alwys working on constantly reminded that I must do good to get salvation.
As C. S. Lewis put it, choosing between faith and works is like choosing which blade in a pair of scissors is more necessary.
What exactly is a salvific conduit? Did you learn that word in Nashville?
In 1990 I was sent, kicking and screaming, to Nashville for the next 24 months. Ok well not literally, but I sure felt like I was being banished from the civilized world! What would this northerner that despised country music do in the home of country music, and who was this Garth Brooks guy that people listened to? I was surprised to find that Nashville had a larger percentage of transplanted people than Pittsburgh, and a younger population too. It turned out that I really liked the people and the city, and that country element - well it mostly stayed out east in the touristy spot of Opryland or on country row, so it was easy to avoid. There were a lot of really great places to go. So what part of town are you in? And just think - it’s only 2 hours to Graceland! There was, though, this one person who made me come back to the Burgh, let’s see I think his name is Mark ?! I haven’t been back since and I am sure a lot has changed. Enjoy your time there.
The hard part about Discipleship is doing it outside of the Church walls. It is easy (well, at least easier) to practice Discipleship inside the Church or even with Church folk. The challange (at least for me) is to carry that into the wWrld. That’s the main reason we need to study the Word together, so that we can better prepare ourselves to carry it out into the World.
fun, i stumbled upon everyone at the gbod meetings at scarritt during lunch. so you might have seen me. blessings on the gathering.