A disciple is an apprentice to Jesus. Discipleship is the gift of participation in the life of Jesus. This “participation” is not less than spending time with Jesus, following him, learning from him, and imitating him. But it is so much more.
When Jesus invites us to “come to me,” as disciples we must understand we are coming to “learn Christ” (Ephesians 4:20). We are coming to abide in Christ and Christ is coming to abide in us.
Paul puts it this way: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, who is being formed in me (Galatians 2:20; 4:19). It’s not only that the commands of Christ come to make room in our heart, but that Christ himself comes to make a home in our heart (John 15).
Through the prophet Jeremiah God declared the good news that one day He would take His law and write it on the hearts of His people (Jeremiah 31:33). What would “I will write it on their hearts” come to mean? The law written on our heart would come to mean obedience written into our heart.
The heart is the seat or the source of our every desire, hope, trust, fear, word, thought, action—in short, our life. God would one day by His Spirit write obedience into our heart. He would reorder and redirect our heart, our whole life, towards Him. Can you see how this goes beyond, goes deeper than, external keeping of rules and commandments?
When would God keep that promise? “On the morning of the third day” the law was given (Exodus 19). Then, “when the sun had risen” on the third day (Mark 16:2), Jesus Christ rose from the dead and the Spirit was to be given (Acts 2).
Jesus speaks of obedience as a way of abiding in him and of him abiding in us like branches in a vine (John 15). He promises not the hard road of mastering keeping ten thousand rules. He promises the “easy” road and the “light” yoke of mastering looking to him ten thousand times. He promises by His Spirit to be forever with us and in us, to lead us into his will and form us into his likeness.
Are you a disciple? The joy of Christ is not in what he gains from you as your Master, but in who you are becoming as his disciple.
The best teachers in the world can impart knowledge and expertise, but they can’t “get it into” their students. Jesus imparts more than knowledge: He imparts himself. He gave himself for us and gives himself to us. He gets into us and makes us new. He renews our heart and opens up before us new, vast landscapes of life, wonder, and beauty found in him.