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Discipleship has often been abused and used to control and manipulate people into thinking that good works can lead to right standing with God. Instead of freedom being experienced, it leads people into bondage of dead works and into a works – based faith.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” Ephesians 2:8-9
Paul the Apostle makes compelling arguments in both the book of Romans and the book of Galatians of justification through faith and emphasizes righteousness as a free gift from God; that nothing we can do can change our state of righteousness in God’s eyes, not even our good works or lack thereof.
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law (works), then Christ died in vein” Galatians 2:21 and “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 NKJV (Emphasis added).
It is, therefore, clear that dead works don’t bring us closer to God. We should thus not disciple people into a performance orientated religion, where the more you do, the more you get rewarded. On the contrary, we must disciple people into a revelation of God’s love and grace, which will in turn compel them to live righteously, as they rightfully are, and do good works as a result. Because, after all, faith without works is dead (James 2:17)!
Paul goes on to say, in his letter to the Corinthians, that it is only by the grace of God that he is who he is, and this grace on him was not without effect (1 Corinthians 15:10). Grace changes things, because it has an effect on, who you are. It causes you to see God in a different light and thus changes the way you act towards other people and the manner in which you minister the gospel to them.
Acknowledging that righteousness is a free gift, by grace, takes away the chance for any boasting or self-righteousness that may have crept in before, when you were still trying to win God’s favor in your own power. It empowers
The implications are manifold: A major one is that God will never impute our sins against us again. This was prophesied in the Psalms and Paul re-iterated it in Romans 4. This doesn’t free us up to sin, but rather it gives us the power not to sin, because apart from the law sin is dead (Romans 7:8) and we are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14)
Paul’s exhaustive arguments for grace over works, leads us to the conclusion that whatever we are “discipling” someone into, it must come in line with the principles of the free gift of grace, embodied in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Grace brings a spiritual element, when our natural tendency is to do things in our own strength. It brings a truthful element when we try and push our own agendas!
In short: Grace changes everything. It changes the way you see God and the world. It changes your attitude, your agenda, your persuasion, your spiritual walk, the way you worship, they way you pray and the way you see yourself! Thus it is conceivable to see, that without it, you might find yourself discipling someone into the same dead-end Christianity you are in … because that’s what’s expected of you!
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