Discipleship - » Chambers, Oswald
Christ ruined many careers and brought sorrow and death to many souls.
Dr. Forsyth 23 (the christian ethic of war, 1916)
1. The call to discipleship
if any man would come after me, let him deny him- self, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23 rv )
The call of Jesus to discipleship has a fascinating side but also a desolating side; we nearly always ignore that side of the call. There is a difference between being a disciple and being what is called saved. It is not the bad things that are the stumbling-block to becoming a disciple, anyone will give up sin and wrong if he knows how to, but will i give up the rightest thing i have got, viz. , my right to myself ? Will i crown Jesus as lord? Whenever our lord talks about discipleship that is what he bases it on, the giving up of my right to myself. . . Let him deny himself. Many are called, but few prove the choice ones, that is, few of us take up the cross and follow Jesus, the reason being not that we are irreligious and bad, but we don’t prefer that jesus should be lord. We like to hear about deliverance from hell and forgiveness of sins, but this comes a bit too close, this demands too much, and we back out. Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him (rv), they went back from following Jesus and never became actual disciples. If i do become a disciple my career may have to be ruined, am i prepared for it? Is he worth it? If any man would come after me . . . If means, you don’t need to unless you like, but you wont be of any account to me in this life unless you do. Wherever christian experience is proving unsatisfactory it is because the holy spirit is still battling around this one point, my right to myself, and until that is deliberately given over by me to Jesus Christ i will never have the relationship to him he asks for
2. The communion of discipleship
rabbi, . . . Where abidest thou? . . . Come, and ye shall see. ( john 1:3839 rv)
There is something so natural and yet so supernatural about Jesus. We never read that Jesus button-holed anybody; these men came to him and asked, master, where do you live? He said come, and ye shall see obvious and simple, yet full of divine power. The difference between the Christianity stamped by the holy ghost and that stamped by ecstasy and fanaticism is just here, the one makes the supernatural spooky and puts the natural nowhere; the other makes the super- natural natural. Jesus does not come to men in extraordinary ways, but in the most ordinary things washing disciples feet; preparing breakfast; at a wedding feast. The early disciples were not attracted to jesus because of their sense of sin, they were religious men, in touch with the elemental forces of nature, simple and unconventional, and when they saw jesus their spirit indicated at once this is the very one we have been looking for. There are plenty of men who have not lived lives of sin has Jesus christ any message for them?
3. The crown of discipleship
john did no miracle: but all things that john spake of this man were true. ( john 10:41)
The crown of johns discipleship was that his dis- ciples became the disciples of Jesus. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed jesus ( john 1:37). If in the final issue the souls of those i have taught do not turn to Jesus when they see him, i have been a traitor. In the new testament it is never the personality of the preacher that counts, what counts is whether he knows how to direct those who come to him to jesus. If a man preaches on the ground of his personality he is apt to be a detractor from jesus. The only reason for presenting jesus is that he is all-in-all to me absolutely. Many of us only know devoteeness to a creed, to a phase of evangelical truth, very few know anything about personal devotion to jesus.
The call to discipleship comes as mysteriously as being born from above (rv mg); once a man hears it, it profoundly alters everything. It is like the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, not everyone hears these calls, only those who have the nature of the sea or the mountains and then only if they pay atten- tion to the call. To hear the call of god or the call to discipleship necessitates education in understanding and discernment. Never be afraid of the thing that is vague, the biggest things in life are vague as far as expression goes, but they are realities.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations . . . (rv)not go out and save souls, but go and make disciples. It is comparatively easy to proclaim salvation from sin, but Jesus comes and says, what about you if you would be my disciple, deny yourself, take up that cross daily, and follow me. It has nothing to do with eternal salvation, it has every- thing to do with our temporal value to god, and most of us do not care anything about our temporal worth to god, all we are concerned about is being saved from hell and put right for heaven. There is something infinitely grander than that, and Jesus christ gives us a marvellous chance of giving up our right to ourselves to him in order that we might become the devoted bondslaves of the one who saves us so supernaturally.