Discipleship Part 2

(Continued from part 1)

Therefore a maturing walk with Jesus goes hand in hand with a growing understanding of His word. Now you'll see biblically brilliant Christians who do not have a healthy relationship with Christ, but I seriously doubt you'll meet a healthy God fearing Christian who does not treasure God's word and lead a lifestyle that reflects it.

So we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. J.I. Packer has famously said that head knowledge is the highway to heart knowledge. That is before our hearts are changed our understanding needs to change, and that happens primarily through God's word, the bible. Some might say that prayer changes our hearts, or fellowship, or service. Yes this is all true but you will never learn anything in prayer or fellowship that you cannot also find in Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 ll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Everything we seek to do God's word has sufficiently provided for us.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all we need is the bible. God has given us many gifts for our growth and we would be naive to think we didn't need them. Colossians 3:10 may help drive my point across, put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

This is a process. This is going to take the rest of our lives, but the completion is guaranteed. The final result is promised. We will be made Christlike. So if our transformation is guaranteed and promised why do I need to do anything? The simple answer, because you are commanded to. The truest answer, because God's glory in and through your life is worth it. You are privileged to participate in God's work in your life only because you are saved by the blood of the Lamb. You were once a slave to sin and are now a slave to righteousness because God has graced you with this free gift of salvation from eternal subjection to His wrath because of your sin. Without God's work in your life you could not be transformed by the renewing of your mind.