The Disciples' Gospel: Transforming from Believer to Disciple

By James Danaher

Before you walk away from a shallow Christianity, experience how a deeper life with Jesus allows us to see the beauty and goodness of his words and instills a desire for those living words to produce new life within you. Get serious about Jesus and the call he has upon your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John R. Mabry
• Release date: Oct 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781958061572

Book preview

Preface

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ¹

The history of Christianity attests to the divisiveness of Jesus’ words and how we understand them. Despite the historical efforts to establish an orthodox or single notion of the gospel by condemning heretics, the words of Jesus will always be divisive because they are heavenly words directed at his disciples, who Jesus hoped would internalize his words and therein bring his kingdom to earth. To internalize Jesus’ words, however, requires that we identify with who we are in God rather than who we are in the world. Since the spiritual journey to which Jesus calls his disciples almost always begins from the perspective of who we are in the world, rather than who we are in God, the meaning of his words will change over the course of the spiritual journey as we come to identify more fully with who we are in God rather than who we are in the world.

Of course, from our contemporary perspective in the world, we naively imagine that the truth of the gospel is something fixed and certain, rather than Jesus’ living words coming to life within us. The belief that the gospel is a fixed and certain doctrine or belief that is eternal and unchanging rather than the living words of Jesus, is easily debunked with a little knowledge of the history of Christianity.

A thousand years ago there was the great schism that divided Christianity into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Five hundred years later the Protestant Reformation caused more divisions, and today there are over forty thousand major Christian denominations worldwide. Jesus foretold of these divisions in the passage above. The basis for the division is always the same. The words of Jesus, and how seriously Christians take those words, have been dividing Christians for two thousand years. The reason Jesus’ words are so divisive is that being kingdom words they are not compatible with the mind or level of consciousness that connects us to the world. Thus, to take on the mind of Christ and allow his words to take root within us, we need a different mind or level of consciousness than the one we have inherited from being in the world.

All who consider themselves Christians are on a spectrum between being believers and being disciples. Believing the popular doctrines of the day is where most of us begin the spiritual journey to which Jesus calls us, but the end of the spiritual journey is always to become his disciples and have Jesus’ living words take root within us and make us into his merciful, forgiving, and loving likeness. We are all at different places in this spiritual journey of becoming the conduits of Jesus’ living words to the world. We usually begin this journey by wanting to know what we must believe to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness, but the spiritual journey always proceeds toward becoming disciples who want to know how we must be to bring his kingdom to earth. This division between believers and disciples is between those who want to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness, and those who want to become God’s mercy and forgiveness to the world because they have been set free from the world and their new freedom allows them to experience the beauty and goodness of being able to forgive everyone ², judge no one ³, and love even their enemies. ⁴

Our Father God forgives everyone and desires that his daughters and sons forgive everyone as well. Many religious people, however, insist that God loves only the righteous and not sinners. But because religious people have that concept of God, they feel they can be like their god and not forgive sinners. We always initially make God in our own likeness and that is why transformation is so essential. Transformation is the end of the spiritual journey.

Of course, we get to decide how transformed we wish to be. Some people want to be transformed just enough to be saved from hell, so that is the point where many (if not most) people begin their spiritual journey—a journey that ends in deeper interior life. Jesus calls his disciples to that deeper interior life of who we are in God rather than who we are in the world. The reason a deeper life is required is because the words of Jesus cannot take root within the person we have created to be in the world. Jesus’ words can only take root within who we were in God before the world got hold of us and began making us into its likeness.

Early in the spiritual journey to which Jesus calls his disciples, we may have little interest in having Jesus’ words take root within us. We usually begin the spiritual journey as believers who want to know God from the perspective the world has given us, disciples, however, come to know that God is beyond our knowing, but the beauty and goodness of Jesus’ words are able to transform us into his likeness. Believing is something we can do from the perspective the world has given us; but becoming a disciple is something we can only do from the perspective of who we are in God rather than who we are in the world. Getting to that perspective of who we are in God is what prayer is ultimately all about.

Following Jesus and becoming his disciples is more than believing that he died for our sins. Believing that Jesus died for our sins is something that can be done from the level of consciousness that connects us to the world; becoming a disciple and allowing Jesus’ words to take root within us is a very different matter, requiring a perspective radically different from the one the world has given us.

From the perspective the world has given us, we can be believers who seek to be righteous through right religious beliefs, which many religious believers believe is required for the forgiveness of sins. Disciples, on the other hand, pay attention to Jesus’ words, which reveal the disciple’s sin at ever deeper levels, so that God’s mercy and forgiveness might continue to transform them into God’s merciful and forgiving likeness. For the disciple, faith is not a set of beliefs that make them righteous before God, but a spiritual journey whereby the beauty and goodness of Jesus’ words keep us in an almost constant state of repentance, changing our minds about the depth of our own sin, while discovering that God’s mercy and forgiveness run deeper still.

For believers, the gospel is about having the right beliefs to have one’s sins forgiven; for disciples, the gospel is about the words of Jesus coming to life within us so we might become the agents of Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness, and love to the world. Believers trust the religious doctrines of the day, which offer the forgiveness of sins in exchange for right religious beliefs, which many believers believe God requires for the forgiveness of sins. But disciples pay attention to Jesus’ words and enter a spiritual journey of transformation into Jesus’ likeness by having Jesus’ words become their own. Believers love the Bible and believe it is the word of God. Disciples see that the words of Jesus are nothing like the rest of the Bible. The Bible is God’s revelation of human beings’ relationship with God, while Jesus’ words to his disciples are about how to bring God’s kingdom to earth.

Jesus’ words are the most beautiful words ever spoken, but their beauty and goodness cannot be seen from the perspective the world has given us. From the perspective the world has given us it is impossible to see how beautiful it is to love even our enemies ⁵ and refuse to respond to violence with violence ⁶, but there is a deep place within all of us from which we can see the beauty and goodness of Jesus’ words. This deep place within us is not an easy place to get to, but for two thousand years it has been the place where believers go to become Jesus’ disciples and have his words come to life within them.

Jesus’ words have always been the basis for division among Christians. That is because Jesus’ words to his disciples are kingdom words and will be understood differently depending upon whether someone identifies with Jesus’ kingdom or the world. If our identity is in the world, we can love Jesus as our savior who forgives our sins, but the beauty and goodness of Jesus’ words will fail to take root within us, since Jesus’ words to his disciples are too alien to the person we have created to be in the world.

Of course, we almost all begin as believers rather than disciples. Even the disciples themselves didn’t begin as disciples. The transformation from believer to disciple is the main theme that runs throughout this book. This transformation from believer to disciple is essentially about going from that level of consciousness that connects us to the world, to that level of consciousness that connects us to God and his kingdom. How far we’re willing to go into this deeper life in God is determined by how much we are willing to dis-identify with the person we have created to be in the world, and thus come to identify instead with who Jesus is calling us to be. The person that Jesus is calling us to be is very different from the person that we have created to be in the world. The world teaches us to love ourselves and see ourselves as better than our neighbors, and especially better than our enemies. This is the way the world teaches us to direct our love. Self-love is the way of the world. We see it in nature as survival of the fittest, it is the basis of athletic competition, and in recent centuries we have built the world economy upon it as well.

Most people begin the spiritual journey as believers interested only in the salvation of our individual lives. That is the popular gospel that sells well to the person that we have created to be in the world, but throughout our lives the words of Jesus, if we care to take notice of them, are always calling us to a deeper life in God than the life we have created for ourselves to be in the world.

Chapter 1

Believers and Disciples

We are all made in God’s likeness with love at the core of our being. Our love, and how we direct that love, is largely what establishes the truth of our being. We love what we see as good and beautiful. Jesus tells us the best and most beautiful things to love, he also tells us the worst things to love, which are the very things that the world tells us are the best things to love. Furthermore, the things that Jesus tells us are the best things to love makes no sense from the perspective the world has given us. Do we really believe that we should forgive everyone, ¹ judge no one, ² and love even our enemies? ³

The way that Jesus tells us to direct our love seems crazy from the perspective the world has given us, and his words are crazy from that perspective. Jesus’ words are kingdom words and are meant for his disciples to bring his kingdom to earth. Believers want to be the recipients of Jesus’ forgiveness, mercy, and love, but not their agents. To become Jesus’ disciples and participate in being his forgiveness, mercy, and love to the world is a different matter, requiring a different level of consciousness than that which connects us to the world.

Of course, the spiritual journey to which Jesus calls us almost always begins with the level of consciousness that the world has given us. From that level of consciousness, we can experience being the recipients of God’s mercy and forgiveness, but from that level of consciousness we are not able to see any benefit in becoming the agents of Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness, and love to the world. There is even a theology that claims that to do so is to negate the finished work of the cross. This is a popular belief since it allows us to receive Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness without having to change the things we love. The belief that God forgives our sins because of our beliefs—rather than because of God’s forgiving nature—is the great heresy of our day and is what keeps us from the fullness of life in God. If our beliefs, rather than God’s nature, are what determine whether God decides to forgive us or not, then why wouldn’t our forgiveness of others be based upon their beliefs as well? Indeed, that is exactly what we do in most instances: we forgive and love people who believe what we believe, because we think their beliefs are what make them righteous and worthy of love. This is the sad state of Christianity in one of its more popular forms. Today, many people believe that their beliefs rather than their loves determine who they are. A little knowledge of human history, however, reveals that our beliefs are ever changing, and the popular beliefs of today are no more than a couple of hundred years old at best.

The enduring and eternal message of the gospel are the words of Jesus, and the fullness of life they bring when those words begin to take root at the core of our being. Jesus is not calling us to become believers who believe that they have been forgiven and are therefore righteous because of their beliefs. Jesus calls his disciples to be willing to become the conduits of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love to the world. Only sinners can minister God’s mercy and forgiveness to the world, and that is why Jesus’ words constantly reveal our sin at ever deeper levels. The greatest saints see themselves as the greatest sinners, and therein become the conduits of God’s mercy and forgiveness passing through them to the world. This is the wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous: only sinners can minister to sinners.

The more popular versions of today’s Christianity claim that our beliefs make us righteous or right with God. That has an enormous appeal to the ego or false self that we have created to live and prosper in the world. That view becomes even more popular when it is argued that Jesus’ payment for our sins is so complete that it even includes the forgiveness of any future sins: once saved always saved. Such a belief, however, requires the suppression of Jesus’ words.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ⁴

Jesus’ words are not about how to be saved from God’s wrath, but about how to become Jesus’ disciples and bring his kingdom to earth. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, but our lack of forgiveness of