We’re following up on last week’s program about the rigorous requirements Jesus laid out to the Jewish people who expressed interest in being His disciple. He told them they would need to forsake all they possessed and give it away. He told them to count the cost—because they would never be able to afford it … only Jesus could pay what was required. He told them to carry their cross—because if they truly wanted to be a disciple and be like the teacher in following His example until the end … they would need to do what He was about to do.
Of course, only Jesus would be able to carry “the” cross to bring redemption. Their dedication and commitment, their efforts at following and commandment-keeping would all fall far short. Jesus would show that the world will be better off accepting His free invitation to life and fellowship with Him—the living God, who did it all for us. The gospel is about His commitment to us.
Ask a church auditorium full of people what the definition of a “disciple” is … and you’ll probably get all kinds of different answers. And this is just from the people who belong to the same denomination. Depending on what we’ve been told or taught, we have probably developed assumptions as to what a disciple is in our own minds. Sometimes we’ll even turn it from a noun into a verb. People seem to feel the need to bring a form of an old Jewish custom from a past culture into our present time because “discipleship” was in the Bible.
On this week’s program, we take a look at how the word disciple is defined in the original language. What were the requirements to be an actual disciple of Jesus to those who wished to apply for the position? Will it cost us everything like religion has taught? Are we called to be disciples of Jesus today? Here is a hint: The main word for disciple in the Greek appears about 246 times in the New Testament. But the word never appears one single time after the book of Acts. Not once was anyone identified as a disciple of Jesus in New Covenant writings.
When we assume Jesus was always speaking to us personally, we may get the covenants confused and miss the point of the message being spoken to those who were under the law at that time. A true disciple becomes like their teacher, which would mean leaving all of their family and giving up all their possessions. It would also mean they would literally be required to carry their own cross as He would do. When Jesus said to count the cost, He was showing them they could not pay the price that would be necessary to complete the task at hand. Only Jesus could carry the one cross that would pay the price in full with His blood.
