What Is A Disciple

What Does It Mean To Be A Disciple Of Jesus? When Jesus walked among us on this earth, there were many who followed him. Some called him teacher; others called him Lord, master, prophet, or Son of God. Multitudes followed after him. The more he healed people of their sicknesses and their diseases, the greater the numbers became of those who followed after him. Jesus had no difficulty attracting a crowd. Yet his nature, his Light, exposed darkness within the very ones who followed after him. While Jesus was not in the business of condemning or shaming the members of broken humanity, as Light, what was shrouded in darkness was inevitably exposed. The apostle, John wrote, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices truth comes to the Light so that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God. John 3:17-21

In essence, God’s condemnation of sin was not rooted in the fact that humanity is born in sin, but rather that when the Light exposes the reality of sin, many cling to the evil and condemn the Light. Jesus is that Light, but he is also Savior. If you hide from God’s Light because you treasure evil, then you also cut yourself off from his saving grace. Repentance is mandatory for any who would receive Jesus’ gift of salvation otherwise condemnation remains by default. That sin has polluted the very fabric of our human nature is obvious to the Christian. We understand our need for a Savior to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We cling to and rejoice in God’s gracious gift of forgiveness and justification. Those very attitudes and beliefs define us as Christians. But that set of beliefs alone does not automatically make us disciples of Jesus.