The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 10 – Following The Christ

So Jesus comes as the Christ, announcing the Kingdom, and calling individuals to follow Him as disciples. How does this discipleship fit and what is involved?

Let’s begin with John’s statement that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we will have Life (John 20:30-31). And as we saw last week, when Jesus appeared as the Christ, He called individuals to follow as His disciples. Does that mean that we have to be His disciples in order to have Life?

Well, yes and no. This is a critical point to understand.

The answer is “no”, if we mean “Life” in the sense that it is often used in Gospel presentations. In this sense, “Life” would mean that I go to heaven when I die. And if that was all we were talking about, then the only thing that would matter is whether I had trusted Jesus to pay the penalty for my sins. If so, then I would go to heaven when I die, regardless of how well I lived the Christian life.

But that is not the primary meaning of “Life” in The Story, and that does not encompass all the Life that Christ offers to us. Read more