The Path of Discipleship
“‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. What does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, yet loses or forfeits himself?’ (Luke 9:23-25)
Some paths are harder to walk than others. You don’t live in PNW long without learning that the trail ratings are no joke. Intermediate means that inexperienced hikers should take care and be aware of rocky paths and quick changes in elevation. Advanced trails, however, can be a whole other story. The advanced warning can mean several hundred feet of elevation change over the course of a few miles. The increased challenge includes all of the steep climbs, narrow footing, and slippery slopes you’d expect from the warning. These paths are not for the faint of heart or the weak of body. They can be dangerous to those unfamiliar with the terrain.
It’s common to see the more advanced trails filled with disciplined enthusiasts pushing themselves to greater challenges. The trails are not for those seeking a leisurely stroll in the woods. It’s easy and even tempting to forget that these trails are not for the inexperienced. But many people never reach the end of their trek. Admitting defeat, they turn back muddied, battered, and wiser for their first-hand experience. They know now what it means to walk a path they hadn’t prepared to undertake.
When Jesus spoke about the path of discipleship, he talked about three disciplines that all His followers must share. The first is self-denial, the second is cross-bearing, and the last is to follow him. Each of these presents a significant warning about the trail ahead. We should consider these warnings as Jesus asks us before attempting to follow in His footsteps.
Saying No to Progress
In an era that champions self-love and self-care, Jesus presents a counter-cultural call. To deny oneself is not occasional abstinence from sin but a wholesale metamorphosis. Leaving the old self we become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The heart of this journey is not the ‘denial’ but the ‘self’ we set aside.
This journey of self-denial is the true and proper worship of those who no longer conform to the world. We are called to live transformed lives which Paul proclaims is a reasonable service to God for His grace.(Romans 12:1-2)
It is here that we encounter the first difficulty of this trail. The renewal of the mind, to complete the is more than just a call to think differently. To live renewed and transformed, I must give up who I am to become like He is.
Paul referred to this personal transformation in the Philippian letter. He urged them in the 2nd chapter to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Pointing to Jesus as the illustration, he encouraged them to walk in a similar sacrifice.
Many teach that seeking Jesus is not about denying and turning away from the world but rather finding oneself. The modern depiction of Jesus as an always-affirming figure permitting anything in the name of love is a popular notion. Such doctrines claim that we can follow a Jesus who permits us to remain as we are. Many even encourage us to go deeper into our sins without discrimination or judgment. Yet Jesus makes it clear every time someone decides to follow Him that, to do so will be life-changing.
Following Jesus means leaving behind what we were so we can walk in His way. Consider the third of the three disciples from Luke 9 :
Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
The danger of what has been dubbed progressive Jesus is that it presents Jesus as an ally. Rather than a teacher, Jesus affirms and accepts us as we are. He requires no repentance. It is the essence of cheap grace. A cost-me-nothing religion, this is the core of modern social gospels like the “he gets us” movement. These doctrines deceive people. They teach that you can follow Jesus in love but without the sacrifice, repentance, renewal, devotion, or dedication that true discipleship requires.
Hiding the truth of repentance, they teach that Jesus would ally himself with sin. This is the equivalent of changing the rating on a hiking trail to make it easier to walk. The results can be nothing short of disasterous.
The Shape of Your Cross
The lookout over the Pololū Valley on Hawaii’s “Big Island” is one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Like the thrust of the giant spear from which it derives its name, the valley splits the coastline into verdant, jagged peaks that extend deep into the Island. You can almost imagine the finger of God at work creating something of such beauty.
The trail to the rocky beach below is not an easy one. There are two markers at the trailhead to warn hikers. The first warns of loose rocks and steep slopes. The second marker warns of the hidden dangers in the waves of the beautiful valley below. The warning, unfortunately, is all too often ignored.
Beneath this sign warning not to surf in the bay is a memorial. It’s little more than two simple sticks lashed together with a leather cord and formed into a rudimentary cross. From it hangs pookah shells, some handmade leis, and a few feathers that blow in the constant breeze.
The locals set the cross as a reminder of the many who have lost their lives in the waves. It’s a memorial to the people who died because they ignored the dangers of the surf below. In fact, so many have lost their lives that they simply decorate the cross when another accident happens. It’s a permanent reminder that death can await those who ignore the warning.
A cross is not a tribute to the living but a testimony of death. We can only wonder what Jesus’ disciples thought of such language. But Jesus, perhaps understanding that His meaning would be difficult to comprehend, gave an explanation.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.”
As followers of Jesus we must choose between the life that we would live without Him and eternity with Him. Like the cross Pololū, which served as a warning to the living, the crosses we bear remind us of the life we have left behind and the promise before us. Following Jesus goes beyond self-denial. It’s about living the transformation beyond the initial repentance.
The crosses we bear are daily reminders that this world is not the place where we are at home. In dying to ourselves, we find the life that Jesus aspires for us to have. Christianity is not about inclusion or living the best and most abundant life we can manifest. We live for life eternal. Today we only glimpse this life by faith, but our cross is proof that our hope is real. (2 Cor. 5:7)
Just as every man and woman is different, so too is the path of discipleship and the crosses we carry. While all are called to deny themselves and follow, for some, that path will always be more difficult. Our adversary is there to capitalize on this weakness. He knows if he can convince us that there is a way of following Jesus without repentance and dying to the old man of sin, then we are all but assured to die in that sin.
When Paul talked about the things that he sacrificed to follow Christ in Philippians 3, they were not the sins that we might list ourselves. Instead, he wrote about things like his heritage and upbringing in which he once took pride, a zeal for the law that made him, at least in his eyes, better than other men. For Paul to be the living sacrifice of Romans 12, he put to death the pride and trust in his heritage, lifestyle, and identity that once defined him. In short, coming to Christ meant losing his identity and finding a new one in Jesus. The specifics of the burden of Paul’s cross are likely very different from yours or mine, but the application is always the same.
This explains the appeal of Progressive Christianity in our present world. Many people resist traditional biblical discipleship because the path cannot be walked while maintaining a sense of self separate from our identity in Jesus.
Rather than Christ living in us, Christianity becomes something we add to our established identity. While this might sound appealing, it is little more than self-deception. This is particularly true of the progressive embrace of unbiblical sexual relationships.
The conflation of sexuality with identity is not an organic evolution of thought but rather a determined effort to legitimize sin. The LGBTQIA+ movement makes no attempt to hide the fact that the key to achieving their goal of changing the way we talk and think about sexuality is widespread acceptance in schools and religion by portraying their movement as the victim of aggression. This has made the topic of sexual sin almost untouchable for Christians.
The change has happened so rapidly that parents and churches are struggling to keep up with the questions and demands of younger generations for acceptance and tolerance. While understanding and love are crucial, as they have always been, to sharing the gospel, it is no longer enough to say we love the sinner but cannot accept the sin. In today’s culture, it is demanded that Christians become advocates for the greater social movement or risk ostracization.
Calls to repent (Luke 13:3) can be labeled as hate speech, and the progressive Christian movement is more than happy to play along. Using slogans like “He gets us” or Jesus without judgment,” they effectively minimize the warning of repent or perish.
Modern Christianity is little more than the affirmation of a love for Jesus without the necessary transformation of the believer. By reducing our walk with Christ to love in word but not action, we dishonestly offer a solace that is not ours to give. In taking away the burden of the individual cross, we take away the joy of true victory over sin and self.
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
When progressive “Christians” claim that Jesus is more permissive of sin in order to attract others to Him without judgment, they deny the transformational power of the gospel that Paul wrote about in Romans 1:16-17. Paul writes of this same transforming walk in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
If those who are washed, sanctified, and justified must turn away from unrighteousness, then silencing the call of repentance cannot be an act of love or compassion but rather deception and placation. To deny the need for repentance is to deny access to Christ. This deception robs everyone of the hope of eternal life and replaces it with a fixation on a temporary identity.
While this road of discipleship is not always easy, to teach that we can have peace and safety when we should be giving a warning of destruction is not love. It is calling evil good and good evil—substituting darkness for light.
What it Means to Follow Christ
Ours is not the first generation to warn against these kinds of false doctrines. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian of remarkable depth, who lived under Hitler’s regime and stood defiantly against the tyranny of Nazi Germany, understood and wrote about the cost of discipleship as few have. His writings, born from the crucible of resistance against profound evil, articulate a discipleship that is not a mere acquiescence to religious norms but a radical obedience to Christ. In perhaps his most famous work he wrote about the dangers of cheapening grace.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods…
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock…”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To paraphrase the rest of Bonhoeffer’s thoughts, repentance is a daily walk that breaks down our will and resistance to Christ. It is something that must be sought again and again as we are never without need. To make grace cheap is to weaken the impact of the gospel and sully the blood of our redemption.
And that lies at the heart of the deception of the progressive Christian movement. The heart of the transformation is removed from the gospel. In it, Jesus becomes someone with whom I associate rather than someone like whom I am trying to become. But if that is the case, then why did Jesus attempt to discourage those who would follow Him without counting the costs?
The Paradox of Gaining by Losing
It is one of the great divine mysteries, this economy of heaven where loss becomes gain and death breeds life. The world clamors for more—more accolades, more success, more self., more acceptance. Yet the very things we clamor for are the shape of the cross we must bear.
If we cannot answer who were before we came to Christ, then how can we say that his grace has had any effect? If there is no transformation, then what is the meaning of discipleship?
Where the world sees loss and pain, the Christian understands that in our weakness, Jesus makes us strong because His grace is sufficient. Our coming to Christ does not strengthen who we were before, but in Him, we find a new identity and a new path.
No one has ever come to Christ without sacrifice and loss, but in the quiet spaces of surrender, where the soul bows low before the King of kings, we discover the true essence of gain. It’s found not in the pride of this world but in the whisper of Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Your Final Destination
Our journey, steeped in the trials of the present, is anchored in the hope of what is to come. The vista at the end of our climb is not merely a beautiful view but the face of Christ Himself, in whose presence all paths converge and all journeys find their end. The question is, will he recognize us as those who walked the path of discipleship or dismiss us as those he does not know?
The hiker’s reward is the summit, but the disciple’s reward is the Savior. The destination is not a place but a person, not a moment but an eternity. And it is this destination that lights our way and gives us the strength to die and rise again as those who have taken his yoke and our cross as we walk beside Him.