The Secret to a Disciple's Resolve

BY DAVE STEEL

At one point in Jesus’ ministry many of his fair-weather followers found his teaching too difficult, so they quit following him. So Jesus asked his closest disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” (John 6:67). That’s when Peter came up with this profound reply: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God?” (vv. 68-69). 

We will always have unanswered questions--sometimes big ones. But there comes a time when we know enough about Jesus to be convinced that he’s our only hope of ever sorting it all out. It’s what keeps us following him when others call it quits. We simply have nowhere else to go. 

In a culture that values having lots of options, it may seem regressive to suggest that there’s only one person to whom we can go for eternal life. On the other hand, there’s something incredibly freeing about being done with dead-end pursuits regarding life’s big questions and discovering what we’ve been looking for all along. In any case, when you’ve just seen Jesus walk on water, as Peter had (John 6:16-21), it seems a little silly to keep your options open in case a more impressive teacher comes along. 

Peter would later testify publicly that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Likewise, the apostle Paul declared that, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). 

All this is corroborated by Jesus himself, who declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). 

As disciples of Jesus, we may not be able to explain everything Jesus said. We may not understand everything he’s doing even now. We’re still learning, still growing. But regardless of what we still need to learn from him and about him, we know this: Jesus holds the keys to life’s ultimate questions. 

Herein lies the secret to a disciple’s resolve. Even if we’re confounded by something Jesus says, we continue following him because of what we do understand: he has the words of eternal life. He is the Holy One of God.

Where else would we go if not to Jesus? Then again, he’s all we need. 

Why Some People Feel Drawn to Jesus While Others Don't

BY DAVE STEEL

Why do some people choose to follow Jesus while others seem to have no interest in doing so? Is it determined largely by a person’s family of origin? If so, Jesus’ family is a notable exception. His own brothers rejected his message throughout his earthly ministry (John 7:5). Other explanations have been offered—such as, our personality predisposes us to either faith or reason. But this implies that religious faith and empirical reasoning are at odds, an assumption that plenty of scholars have debunked.[1] Some have even tried to reduce this to a matter of a person’s IQ, as if to suggest that following Jesus is clearly the sensible choice, or conversely that intelligent people can’t possibly believe that Jesus is God incarnate. Such disparaging generalizations are neither helpful nor true.

So what does Jesus have to say about why some people follow him while others don’t? He addressed this issue succinctly when he said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). In other words, whatever additional factors may be involved, the first condition for someone to want to follow Jesus is that God must draw that person.

But what exactly does Jesus mean when he says that the Father draws us? He doesn’t mean that God coerces us against our will. No, the Father opens our hearts to the truth about Jesus in such a way that we desire of our own will to follow him. Still, the Father can be very convincing, as Jesus points out a few verses earlier where he declares that, “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37).

And it’s not just the Father who draws us. The Son draws us too. Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). He meant that by his crucifixion he would draw to himself all kinds of people—both Jews and Gentiles. And indeed he has!

Charles Spurgeon, a well-known nineteenth-century pastor, put it this way:

Jesus knows how by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love.[2]

If true, this revelation upends the notion that those who choose to follow Christ are inherently more sensible or moral than those who don’t. It’s not like that. If you’ve come to Christ for salvation, it’s ultimately because God has drawn you to himself. Coming to Christ is without a doubt the best decision we can ever make, but we can’t take any credit for it.

Whenever I pause to consider how God has drawn me to himself—how I would not even know him if he had not done so—I find myself wanting to pursue him all the more. A. W. Tozer was right: “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand.”[3]

So let us, as C. S. Lewis urges, “Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless he wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.”[4]

 

[1]See, for example, William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, rev. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994).

[2]Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Daily Readings (Lynchburg, VA: The Old-Time Gospel Hour, n. d.), 423.

[3]A. W. Tozer, The Best of A. W. Tozer: 52 Favorite Chapters, compiled by Warren W. Wiersbe (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1993), 13.

[4]C. S. Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis, rev. ed. (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 1993).  

Have We Underestimated People's Interest in Spirituality?

BY DAVID STEEL

An interesting paradox is at work in our culture. On the one hand, some researchers are suggesting that religion in America is becoming passé—perhaps even on its way to extinction.[1] Such dire predictions, coupled with the erosion of morality in our culture, are enough to plunge some of us into a mild depression over the apparent disregard for anything spiritual.

On the other hand, there are those who speak of a rising tide of spiritual interest here in America and in Western culture in general. A few years ago, American pollster George Gallup, Jr. wrote, “One of the most profound yet perhaps most overlooked trends in the U.S. over the last decade, clearly identified in national surveys, is the surge of interest in spiritual matters and an intense hunger for God.”[2] Similarly, Anglican theologian Alister McGrath writes,

There has been a remarkable growth in interest in the general area of spirituality in recent years. A resurgent cynicism concerning the value of material possessions has led to much greater attention being paid to the spiritual dimensions of life. . . . Alongside a gradual general decline in appeal of institutionalized forms of religion in western culture, there has been a clear rise in popular interest in spirituality, including the various forms of Christian spirituality.[3]

If these respected authors are correct, then regardless of the state of religion in America, spirituality seems to be thriving. And if spirituality is thriving, then perhaps our culture is more open to learning the way of Christ than we think.

Wanting to get a view from the balcony, I recently graphed the number of books published annually since 1980 on the subject of “spiritual formation,” according to the WorldCat online catalog.[4] Check out the impressive trajectory in the graph below.

Books Published Annually on Spiritual Formation

Below is a similar graph of books published under the keyword discipleship.[5] While the trajectory is not as steep here, the graph line has definitely headed north over the past fifteen years.

Books Published Annually on Discipleship

I’ve believed for a long time that people need Jesus, though I’ve sometimes wondered how much people want him these days. But if the rate at which books on spiritual formation and discipleship are cascading off the presses is any indication, this is a great time to point people to Jesus.

We’re riding a wave of spiritual interest right now. Cowabunga!

[1]Daniel M. Abrams, Haley A. Yaple, and Richard J. Wiener, A Mathematical Model of Social Group Competition with Application to the Growth of Religious Non-affiliation, Cornell University Library, last revised January 11, 2011, accessed November 4, 2014, http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.1375.

[2]George Gallup, Jr., foreword to Becoming a Healthy Disciple: Ten Traits of a Vital Christian, by Stephen A. Macchia (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 11.

[3]Alister E. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1999), 1.

[4]WorldCat, accessed May 5, 2016, http://www.worldcat.org.

[5]WorldCat, accessed May 5, 2016, http://www.worldcat.org. 

If Jesus Could Ask You One Question . . .

BY DAVE STEEL

Here’s a classic small group discussion starter you may have heard before: “If you could ask God one question, what would you ask him?” Posing this provocative question is a great way to take the discussion to the deep end of the pool. Try it sometime.

But what if we were to turn the tables? What if we were to ask, “If God could ask me one question, what would he ask me?”

It’s not so far-fetched when you stop to realize that God has been asking people questions since the Garden of Eden. There he asked Adam, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9) and “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (v. 11). God didn’t ask these questions because he couldn’t find Adam or because he wasn’t there when the forbidden fruit went missing. God sees and knows everything.

So why would God ask us questions when he already knows the answer?

Sometimes our situation is so desperate that only God can help us, but we aren’t ready to face this reality. So we hide or we trust in things that can’t really help us. That’s when God, out of his compassion, will ask us a question that compels us to face our need of him.

Jesus, God’s Son, did this when he encountered a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years, poised at the edge of a pool supposed to have healing powers. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). The question was really an invitation for the man to lift his eyes and behold the remedy standing right in front of him.

Knowing that Jesus uses questions this way, what do you suppose he might ask you if you gave him the chance to ask you one question?

I suspect the question Jesus would ask you and me is one he asked his earliest disciples: “Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:15).

Jesus made it clear that embracing his true identity was a life or death matter for us, saying elsewhere, “If you do not believe I am he, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).

“Who do you say I am?” That’s the question.

How would you answer that?

Many reply with something like, “You’re a great moral teacher” or “You’re a prophet.” But the apostle Peter speaks for every true disciple of Jesus when he answers boldly, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16).

That word Christ means “anointed one.” It’s a reference to the centuries-old expectation of a coming Messiah who would rescue God’s people. The writings of the Old Testament prophets all pointed to this Messiah, as Jesus himself explained to two of his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:27). Peter was declaring that Jesus is this long-awaited Savior.

By declaring “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter crystallizes why we follow Jesus. As Peter’s brother Andrew put it, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41). It’s the most important discovery we will ever make, which is why Jesus asks . . . “Who do you say I am?”