Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Gospel & Disciple-making

I recently completed an article entitled (in pre-published form, "The Design of Discipleship".) In it, I explore the biblical foundations for discipleship, disciple-making and spiritual multiplication. In one section, I reflect on the gospel and disciple-making, including the following paragraph:
The other essential ingredient for a healthy growth environment is the gospel. In its simplest form (what you might call, the essence), the gospel is the good news about Jesus—who he is and what he has done. (See for instance, 1 Corinthians 15:1-5; compare Luke 24:45-48.) It is through this gospel that you came to know and experience Jesus as your Savior and Lord by faith (Romans 1:16, 17). But the Christian life doesn’t start with the gospel and then graduate to something else, to some deeper truth. No, you don’t move on; you go deeper and experience more. The gospel, in its fullness, is the whole truth about Jesus and all that his salvation and kingdom has for us. It is like a vein of gold, the deeper you go the richer you become, not because you are finding something else, but because you are experiencing something more. So, whether the gospel is summarized in its essence through a brief booklet like, Would You Like to Know God Personally? or expounded in its fullness through Paul’s theologically rich letter to the Romans, it is transforming message through which we encounter Jesus Christ our Lord. In the gospel, we find Christ to be the only solution for our fallen condition—our brokenness, sin and shame. In the gospel, we discover Christ to be our life and through his Spirit to be the power we need to live that life. Jesus transforms us, and he does so with his gospel. Therefore, making disciples means helping others to understand and experience the gospel.
Thoughts?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

very true... we never outgrow the gospel. It is what grows in our lives as we see more of our need for Christ and how he is more than sufficient to meet those needs. If this is what Jesus is all about, then of course this is what making followers of Jesus is about too.