Strategic Planning Month

Discipleship: Dare to Be a Disciple Through Selfless Surrender and Sacrifice

Devan Booker was eager to grow in his Christian life. One day, he got a piece of paper and listed everything he would do for God. He wrote down the things he would give up, the places he would go to minister, and the areas of ministry he would enter. Devan was excited. He took that list to the church and put it on the altar. He thought he would feel joy, but instead, he felt empty.

Disappointed, Devan went home and started adding to his list. He wrote down more things he would do and wouldn’t do. He took the longer list and put it on the altar, but still, he felt nothing. Desperate for answers, he went to a wise, old pastor, and asked him for help. The pastor said, “Take a blank sheet of paper, sign your name at the bottom, and put that on the altar.” Devan followed his pastor’s wise advice and then marveled that peace came to his heart.

A central lesson from this story is that discipleship starts with surrendering and giving ourselves to the Lord and allowing Him to direct our thoughts and actions. This truth is essential to the Christian faith and Christian discipleship. However, to surrender, one must overcome his natural tendencies and cultural conditioning to do just the opposite. In a blog article about surrender and discipleship, Sandy Mason connects surrender to discipleship in the following statement:

The idea of surrender sounds un-American to most of us. We are told to never surrender, to never quit, to keep fighting, even if the odds are stacked against us. I wholeheartedly agree when we are talking about sports, competition, or even war. But, in the spiritual life, in the kingdom of God, surrender is actually the path to real freedom.

Mason identified why people might struggle to surrender their lives to God. Our natural tendency is to fight and never surrender until we have become victorious in a battle, game, or competitive event. Thus, Mason suggests that surrendering our lives is not easy, even though it may lead to freedom.   

Jesus knew that giving up control of our lives and selfish endeavors was the key to becoming lifelong learners and followers. In Mark 8:34-35, Jesus highlighted some prerequisites for discipleship when He explained, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Jesus’ words are replete with lessons for anyone needing clarity about the nature and cost of discipleship.

Lesson #1: Discipleship requires selflessness. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must first deny himself…” Jesus’ disciples must live for Him instead of living for themselves. In Galatians 2:20, Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Paul’s words to the Galatian Christians are still relevant for 21st Century believers: Living for Christ must become more important than living for self.

Lesson #2: Discipleship requires suffering. Jesus said that we must “take up [our] cross…” Some people think that Jesus’ words about carrying a cross are equivalent to carrying a burden. Jesus’ goal for His cross was to get on it and die. When we take up our cross, we must use our cross to die to ourselves, which requires pain and suffering that can produce growth and spiritual development (1 Pet. 5:10).

Lesson #3: Discipleship requires focus on the Savior. Jesus said, “Follow Me.” These two words are profound because “Follow Me” indicates the continuous relationship that Christ’s disciples must develop with Him. By following Christ, His disciples have the perfect model for becoming godly and living Christ-centered lives. In so doing they displayed the characteristics inherent to those called into a life of discipleship.

Lesson #4: Discipleship requires sacrifice. Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” In God’s economy, the key to gaining is being willing to lose. On one hand, we lose our lives in Christ as we live for Christ instead of living for ourselves. On the other hand, we gain a better way of living that has eternal implications beyond this world (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Seemingly, Jesus’ words teach two goals: living for Christ and living for the gospel. In his commentary on the gospel according to Mark, Alan Cole rightly pointed out that “[t]he Christian, therefore, has not two goals, but one: Christ and His gospel are ultimately one.” When we live for Christ and the gospel, we live for the same goal.

Remember: We dare to travel the costly path of discipleship when we live with Christ and the gospel as our goal.  

Additional Reading

In E. Stanley Jones’ book, Victory Through Surrender: Self-Realization Through Self-Surrender, he raised a poignant question: “Is God cruel or consistent in demanding self-surrender?” He dedicated a chapter to answering this question. The following excerpt concisely responds to the question:

[S]elf surrender is at the very heart of God and is at the very heart of all His attitudes and actions. When He asks us to surrender ourselves, He is asking us to fulfill the deepest thing in Himself and the deepest thing in us. It is not only the deepest in God—it is also the highest in God. God was never higher than when He gave Himself for us. If there were a cosmic newspaper announcing: GOD, THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE, GIVES HIMSELF TO REDEEM A PLANET CALLED EARTH!—the universe would gasp in astonishment. That would be news, Good News. It would be more than good news. It would set the standard for life in the universe, and we must do what God does: surrender ourselves. If we do that, we will be in harmony with the universe. The sum total of reality is behind us, sustains us, furthers us, approves of us; we have cosmic backing. If we go against what God does and make ourselves the center of life, then we are running athwart the universe; we have nothing behind us except our lonely wills; we are estranged and out of harmony with the universe and ourselves. We have saved our lives and lost them.

No one has given as much as our heavenly Father to demonstrate His love for humanity (Rom. 5:8). Thus, we are responsible for responding correctly to God’s initial act of love by surrendering our lives to discipleship as we strive to be devoted to being and behaving like Christ.