Dear Elim Grace,

Let’s be honest: Do we think following Jesus is about trying or training?

We can try something without committing to something. We can attempt something without investing in it. But discipleship isn’t about trying to obey Jesus. It’s about being trained in obedience.

To be trained is to enter a process, a system, a way of doing things that over the long haul will produce a desired result. Yes, Jesus is “the way” to God. The “door of the sheep”. But He is also the Good Shepherd who leads and trains us along the way.

We can try to pray and fail. Or we can be trained by Jesus to pray. “Lord, teach us to pray,” was the disciple’s request, not, “Lord, teach us to try and pray.”

We can try to obey and fail. Or we can be trained to walk in obedience. The call of discipleship is, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) “Leave your way of life and living, of deciding and doing things, and enter into mine,” Jesus says to us.

Being a disciple of Jesus means we are “being trained” in godliness (1 Timothy 4:6-7). It means we are to “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them” (1 Tim. 4:15). It means we are like a soldier who trains and serves “to please the one who enlisted” us (2 Timothy 2:4).

It means we are like an athlete who trains and “exercises self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25) and who “competes according to the rules” (2 Timothy 2:5) It means we are like “a hardworking farmer” (2 Tim. 2:6) who in due season will share in the crops. All this, “if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9)

Nothing about discipleship means try and attempt it. Everything about discipleship means take on the burden of Jesus’ teaching and obedience, the cross of Jesus’ sacrifice and suffering, the crown of Jesus’ victory and resurrection. It means a whole-life commitment, a life-long pursuit. It’s to be crucified and buried with Christ, and to be raised to new life in Him (Galatians 2:20). It’s to be “born again” (John 3).

It’s to walk “a long obedience in the same direction” (Eugene Peterson). It’s to trust in Jesus and so “to choose His way and we take what comes with that” (Dallas Willard). It’s to receive the Spirit and the life of the Spirit. It’s to sow to the Spirit and, so, to reap the eternal, abundant, new life of God in the person, work, and living way of Christ Jesus (Galatians 6:7-8).

And that’s the goal. Sowing to the Spirit. Not trying in the Spirit, but sowing your life to the Spirit — heart, mind, and body. As you sow your life in obedience to Jesus, the Spirit will both grow the fruit and reap the harvest of the life of Christ in you and through you.

Let’s be honest: Do we think following Jesus is about trying or training? Is it an attempt at something or a surrender to Someone?

Pastor Jonathan