John 8:31-32 - Discipleship Defined

This week, I went out of town on vacation with family and friends, and I used a navigation app for directions to the house where we were staying. And on not one but two occasions, I still missed my turn! However, the app I used wouldn’t only give me directions, it would also adjust the directions to get me back on track. If I drifted off course, it would correct me, to keep me headed the right way.

That’s something like what happens every Lord’s Day in worship. God directs us back to the person and work of Jesus Christ. And at the beginning of each new year, we do something similar when we revisit the mission and vision statements of our church. These statements clarify our purpose and how we go about fulfilling that purpose. They remind us of “where we want to go” as a church.

On page 2 of the WG, in the second paragraph, you can read our mission statement. We exist “to join God on mission by producing mature followers of Jesus Christ for His glory and our joy.” God commands His church to participate in His disciple-making mission.

What is a disciple? A basic definition is “one who follows the teaching of another.” A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who follows His teaching about Himself as the Messiah revealed in the Old and New Testaments. The state of being a disciple is commonly referred to as “discipleship.” Today and for the next two Sundays, we’re going to examine biblical discipleship: what a disciple is, who “makes” a disciple, and how a disciple is made.

The term “discipleship” isn’t present in the Scriptures, but throughout the OT and NT, God’s people are called to follow His teaching. In Deuteronomy 4 in the OT, Moses receives instruction from God and tells the people, “...listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them…”

Discipleship comes into focus even more vividly in the New Covenant era. There is a cost, as Christ says in Luke 14, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

In light of what Scripture says, Charles Dunahoo gives this definition of “disciple:” “someone who thinks God’s thoughts after Him and applies them to all of life.” That’s a good description of a “mature follower of Jesus Christ.”

Here at GS, we want to think God’s thoughts after Him and apply them to all of life. And to do that, we should note how Jesus defines discipleship in John 8:31–32. Look at verse 31 once more. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him.”

This is very interesting. In the verses that follow, Jesus says these people would turn on Him and seek to kill Him. They didn’t possess genuine faith. They believed that they were qualified to be His disciples, but they weren’t prepared to do what He would demand of them because they didn’t see their own spiritual need.

Spiritual blindness is natural. None of us naturally sees his or her need. Even once we’re born again – once we possess genuine faith – we’re still prone to spiritual blindness apart from the ongoing transformation of Christ. Regeneration ends total spiritual blindness, but not our susceptibility to that blindness.

And it’s not enough just to be disciplined or vigilant. Those are good and necessary, but without the change only Christ can bring, discipline and vigilance produces self-righteousness like what Jesus exposes here.

These people believed that they already had peace with God. They didn’t believe they were naturally enslaved to sin, or that they needed Christ to set them free from sin and death, or that they were spiritually blind because of their sinful nature. And so they failed to see that they needed to be spiritually unified with Jesus Christ.

God must graciously reveal this need to us. And we must receive His great provision for our need. That provision is Christ. Those who are saved are unified with Christ. God has ordained His means of grace – the Word, sacraments, and prayer – for our continual awareness of our need and for our spiritual growth to maturity. As Christ works in us through these means, we are formed into mature disciples.

To be clear, discipleship is fundamentally a divine work. Our role is responsive. God generates growth; we participate. Or, in the words of Christ in John 8:31-32, we abide. Disciples abide – or remain – in Christ’s word.

But what does that mean to abide?

The meaning gets to the heart of what a disciple is. Notice the outline for you there. According to what Jesus expresses here, a true disciple is someone who receives union with Him as the guiding reality of his or her life, the defining message of his or her life, and the liberating power for his or her life. The mission of this church is to join God in producing true disciples. So let’s look closer at what Christ says defines a true disciple.

Notice Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” He says they must remain in His teaching. What did He teach them? Well, many things. He taught them about Himself, equating Himself with the great I AM. He claimed the divine identity and authority of the eternal, self-existent, one true God! He also taught them about their true, sinful condition, and that they shouldn’t place confidence in their ethnicity or nationality for salvation. Additionally, He taught them that apart from Himself, they were doomed.

These people assumed that they were united with God because they descended from Abraham and because they were members of the covenant community. Their hope was in family history and birthright. These were the guiding realities of their lives, shaping their very identity. In other words, these realities formed who they understood themselves to be. But apart from Christ, they were still enemies of God because of sin.

“Abide in My word” corrects all the false identities that we generate.

“Abide in My word” causes us to acknowledge our helplessness without Christ.

“Abide in My word” moves us from false security to true security – in union with Him.

You see, a true disciple receives union with Christ as the guiding reality
of his or her life. Again, Charles Dunahoo’s definition of a disciple: “someone who thinks God’s thoughts after Him and applies them to all of life.” Norman Harper gave a similar definition. He wrote that a disciple is “someone who self-consciously strives to live all life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”

Is union with Jesus Christ the guiding reality of your life? If someone took away your family role, job title, achievements, or reputation, who would you be? What shapes your decisions and reactions day to day? “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” That is not mere rhetoric. It’s not a metaphor. It is the reality of life in union with Christ – the guiding reality of a true disciple. Now look at this next statement.

Jesus says, “And you will know the truth.” Obeying Christ by relying only on Him to make you right with God – by receiving union with Him as your guiding reality – is what it means to abide. William Hendriksen writes, “This makes one a true disciple of Jesus and leads to genuine knowledge of the truth (God’s special revelation which has its heart and center in the work of Christ).”

Follow the logic of Jesus here. Knowing the most essential and everlasting truths comes only through submission to Christ and union with Him. Jesus is saying that you cannot truly understand life apart from Him and His message.

Without Christ as your light, you will grope in the dark, chasing one identity after another. Without Christ as your sight, you will wander blindly from one false security to another. We live from what we abide in. A true disciple receives union with Christ as the defining message of his or her life.

What is the message that defines your life today? What message (or argument) has ultimate authority in your life? We live in a world with many “voices.” So many opinions. So many strong suggestions. Love this, need this, buy this, wear this, watch this, listen to this, believe this. Become this, give your life and yourself to this. Work for this.

What message has the final say over you and your life?

You know what you need – what would actually help you sort through it all? The truth. Wouldn’t the truth help? Jesus said, “Abide in my word, and you will know the truth.” Who Jesus Christ is and what He has done defines the life of true disciples, because their lives flow from union with Him. Now look at this last statement.

Jesus then adds, “And the truth will set you free.” This builds on what He just said. Only through union with Him – and with Christ as our guiding reality and our defining message – can we be set free from the sin that naturally rules us. Only in and through Him can we be set free from spiritual blindness and have the power to face that blindness as it reasserts itself daily in our lives.

But without Christ and the life He gives, there’s only bondage. Only slavery. Those who are dead in sins are enslaved to it. Those who are born again are prone to wander from Christ return to slavery. But in Him we are free. And William Hendriksen puts this well. He says, “One is free, therefore, not when he can do what he wishes to do but when he wishes to do and can do what he should do.”

In our day and age, so many people campaign for individual autonomy. Free the self! Live and let live! Follow your heart! Be true to yourself! Live your truth! Free yourself from cultural restraints, sexual restraints, relational obligations, moral restraints. Get free. Free yourself! But Jesus said, “Abide in my word, and you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free.” A true disciple receives union with Christ as the liberating power for his or her life. Freeing power is in and from Christ.

Are you still trying to liberate yourself? You can’t, but Christ can. If you are in union with Him, He has set you free. Be strengthened by His liberating power! How are we made strong? The strength flows from that union with Him. The power is not in our discipline, or our resolve, or our determination, but in Christ Himself. Christ is our power – at work in all those who abide.

His disciples know the truth such that the truth has an ever-increasing hold on them. Discipleship is a state or condition of learning from and being transformed by Christ as we behold His glory and grow in His grace and knowledge. Union with Him is the cause, not the result. Union with Him is what makes true discipleship possible. And true disciples are what we desire to join God in producing in this church, participating in His mission according to the roles He gives each of us.

Will you trust in Christ today, and receive the life He alone gives?

Let’s bow together in prayer.