NOTES ON THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP: SERIOUS CHRISTIANITY FOR SERIOUS TIMES

SCRIPTURE. “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].” – PHILIPPIANS 3:10-11, AMPC

KEY WORDS. Know; Power; Resurrection; Sufferings; Transformed; Death

QUOTATIONS

BONHOEFFER. “‘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. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship [Nachfolge, ‘The Act of Following’], 1937; edited

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

One of the most indelible Principles by which Americans live is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of 1776: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain Unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Countless American patriots across the generations have fought and bled and died to defend these very nearly sacred words. My father was one of them. They constitute the heartbeat of this Republic, dedicated to the God-given Rights of Man and Citizen, as the French Revolutionaries phrased it.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. This powerful statement, as I will argue here, has both an original intention and definition that is honorable and biblically defensible. However, it’s contemporary forms have taken a drastically destructive turn in recent times that have left the Nation and yes, even its Church, in political and theological tatters.

Permit me to explain.

I greatly appreciate BRENT STRAWN’S rendering of this important Idea, who teaches religion and theology in Emory’s Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion. Strawn is also Editor of ‘The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness: What the Old and New Testaments Teach Us About the Good Life’ (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Listen carefully as he incisively sets up my first major point.

“More than just fireworks and cookouts, the Fourth of July offers an opportunity to reflect on how our Founders envisioned our new nation — including the Declaration of Independence’s oft-quoted ‘unalienable right’ to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ … It may be that the American Dream, if that is parsed as lots of money and the like, isn’t a sufficient definition of the good life or true happiness. It may, in fact, be detrimental …

A thick understanding of ‘Happiness’ means that we have to think beyond only pleasurable sensations or think about redefining happiness altogether, if ‘Pleasure’ is the only thing it means. If that’s the only thing happiness means anymore, then we have a case of ‘word pollution’ and we need to reclaim or redefine the word or perhaps use a different one altogether, at least for a while. Redefining simplistic, thin definitions of happiness means that we come to terms that the happy life does not mean a life devoid of real problems and real pain.” – “What the Declaration of Independence Really Means,” Emory News Center, July 3, 2018; edited

THE AMERICAN DREAM. Strawn does yeoman’s work here to identify the Present American Condition: The nearly manic Pursuit of Pleasure as defined by the acquisition of material wealth and its accompanying “freedoms” to do whatever you like with your life, ‘unfettered’ by moral, ethical or legal measures to improve individual or social conditions.

Make that read, ‘LAWLESS’ – From the Greek, ‘Anomia’ [ἀνομία]: “Iniquity; transgression of God’s Law; i.e., the utter disregard for God’s Truth (His written and living Word); includes the end-impact of law breaking – i.e. its negative influence on a person’s soul (status before God).” DK: A contempt not only for God’s Precepts, but ultimately a contempt or form of  hatred for God the Lawgiver.

Selah.

This entire American Obsession with ‘having fun’ transgresses every known Biblical and even Secular notion of what it means to be a good citizen and a productive human being. The brilliant New York University professor NEIL POSTMAN said it as well as anyone possibly could in his astounding book published in 1985.

“Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been ‘transformed’ into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death.’” – 1985; edited

In philosophical terms, a kind of EGOISTIC HEDONISM has replaced Biblical Happiness in recent years. Hedonism is the belief that “Pleasure, or the absence of pain, is the most important principle in determining the morality of a potential course of action” (EDITORS, “Ethics Unwrapped,” U of Texas, Austin, ret. Feb. 28, 2023).

This Materialist-Sensualist notion has quickly devolved into a sort of Cultural Narcissism as our governing Narrative, where ‘SELF becomes America’s ultimate Golden Calf.’

THE PRECEDENT. “So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.’ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; ‘and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’” – EXODUS 32:3-6, AMPC

• PLAY. From the Hebrew, ‘Tsachaq’ [צְחַק]: “To laugh outright in merriment or scorn; to make sport of or mock (ridicule); to entertain or jest; make a toy of; to use any exercise for pleasure or recreation; to do something not as a task or for profit, but for amusement; to frolic or frisk about.”

• PERSPECTIVE. “‘And the people sat down to eat and drink’ — Of the remainder of what was sacrificed; and then ‘rose up to play’ — To play the fool, to play the wanton. It was strange that any of the people, especially so great a number of them, should do such a thing. Had they not, but the other day, in this very place, heard the voice of the Lord God speaking to them out of the midst of the fire, ‘Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image?’ Yet they made a calf in Horeb, the very place where the law was given!” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

• PUNISHMENT. “So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it … And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.’ Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.’ So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made [history records 3,000 were killed].” – EXODUS 32:19-20; 33-35, NKJV

DK. Perhaps the center the American Church’s greatest error is that somehow it presumes that the New Testament Jesus is substantially different than the Old Testament Jesus. Wrong! “Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, Amplified).

Now Hear This: If He blotted out the names of those who blasphemously sinned against Him then, just what makes us think He will not do so today – because you said the prayer?

Think on it again, beloved, with much fear and trembling. Again.

1. TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF FUN

I mentioned what I’m going to write next only in passing several weeks ago about a sermon I heard at our local mega church by a young pastor who I have known for several years. It was a message that from start to finish left me at first breathless, then sad, and finally outraged – an emotion I confess I often feel these days.

THE SERMON. The Title of his sermon: A Theology of Play.  The Thesis: Christians need to have more fun! The Scripture: Ecclesiastes 8:15.

• ECCLESIASTES 8:15. “‘So I commended enjoyment,’ because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.”

• ENJOYMENT. Taken from the Hebrew term, ‘Simchah’ [שִׂמְחָה], meaning: “Blithesomeness, glee; exceeding gladness, mirth or pleasure; in festivity; happiness or delight; to use any exercise for pleasure or recreation; to do something not as a task or for profit, but for amusement; to sport; to frolick; to frisk; to toy; to act with levity; to trifle; to act wantonly and thoughtlessly.” DK: Note similarity to “Play.”

• COMMENTARY. “‘Then I commended mirth’ – Innocent mirth, a cheerfulness of spirit in whatsoever state condition men are; serenity and tranquility of mind, thankfulness for what they have, and a free and comfortable use of it; this the wise man praised and recommended ‘to good men,’ as being much better than to fret at the prosperity of the wicked, and the seemingly unequal distribution of things in this world, and because they had not so much of them: as others; who yet had reason to be thankful for what they had, and to lift up their heads and be cheerful, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God in another world. ‘The Targum interprets it as the joy of the Law.’” – JOHN GILL, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 9  vols., 1746-1763; edited

MY POINT. Whereas the young pastor was essentially arguing that Christians just need to get out there and enjoy themselves more (presumably as compensation for living in rough times), the theologians made sure that such joy comes from obedience to God!

But then this is the fruit of the wretchedness of the Contemporary American Dream that soaks the Houses of God these days. It is the fruit of a degree from Oral Roberts University, which one trip to the campus with my daughter in her senior year of high school convinced us within an hour to not send her there.

And more ultimately, beloved, this is the fruit of an otherwise gifted young man who has bought into the ‘Blessing-Prosperity-Happiness Fantasy’of what the Christian walk is all about. He is comparatively wealthy. He has ‘the perfect family.’ He has a huge house on a big ranch with all the accoutrement of a landowner. The works!

And he is miserable, beloved.

But he is shackled to it all, no longer able to ‘preach the meat’ (he actually mocked that someone would accuse him of that in the sermon!). Beyond tragic, this is Tragic Microcosm of the American Church today.

“Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” – Isaiah 22:13

American theologian and classicist DOUGLAS BOND sums up The Argument against all this entertainment mania this way.

“When the Church fashions worship to entertain the world, to give people what they want, it inevitably creates, as one journalist termed it, ‘a Christian ghetto watering down the Gospel.’ Moreover, when the goal is to make Christian worship appealing to a feminized culture, we inevitably alter the message and make it less offensive–and less Christian.

Whenever Israel imitated the Pagan worship of the nations around them, God became angry and judged them. Thus, JOHN CALVIN urged that ‘all human inventions in worship be removed and driven from us, which God himself justly abominates.’ Far from aping the world, Christian men ought to stand against the impulse to reinvent worship so it looks and sounds like the world.” – “Entertainment as Worship – Worship as Entertainment,” Bond Books, ret. Feb. 27, 2021; edited

By 2023, the American Church had become awash in hotshot, high tech, light-assisted musical productions, to say nothing of the endless flashy concert tours of Christian musicians making a whole lot of bank on musical entertainment extravaganzas. Sorry folks, but there’s a reason I haven’t spent a plugged nickel to go to even one:

Don’t need it to get closer to Christ.

When I think of the lives and walks of men like Polycarp and Luther and Bonhoeffer and so many other true Champions of the Faith, the comparison to today’s American Church oftentimes makes me want to retch. So, let’s more happily move forward to what Serious Christianity is for Serious Times, beloved.

That is where God truly lives, and nowhere else.

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “‘[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him’ [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].” – PHILIPPIANS 3:10-11, AMPC

What follows are the very CENTRAL IDEAS that drive this Teaching to its essential meanings.

• KNOW. Some would argue, including this writer, that this is the overarching goal and purpose of following Christ in order to carry out His every Commandment: ‘To Know Him!’ Taken from the Greek term, ‘Ginóskó’ [γινώσκω]: “To experientially, intuitively [closely, intimately] be acquainted with a person; to accurately perceive and recognize an individual, by one’s feelings [as well as one’s intellect]; to know someone of a surety [with no substantial doubts, as in full trustworthiness].” DK: This requires much time!

• POWER. Here we have the much used but  not always understood and appreciated word, ‘Dunamis’ [δύναμις]: “Divine, supernatural, miraculous power, might, strength; [cognitive, physical or spiritual] force, ability, efficacy, energy; power to achieve by applying the Lord’s inherent abilities; ‘power through God’s ability’ needed in every scene of life to fully grow in sanctification and prepare for Heaven (Glorification); inherent power [derived from the indwelling Holy Spirit].”

• RESURRECTION. From the Greek, ‘Anastasis’ [ἀνάστασις]: “Literally, ‘a rising of the body from the grave;’ to stand up [under pressure to stand down]; to rise again [from a previous state of deadness]; restoration of life (after burial); chiefly, the revival of the dead of the human race, or their return from the grave, particularly at the General Judgment; by the Resurrection of Christ we have assurance of the future resurrection of men.”

• SUFFERINGS. From the term, ‘Pathéma’ [πάθημα]: “Affliction endured for the sake of Christ and in conformity to His suffering; a passion or a deep abiding affection [for God that makes one willing to suffer great harm or even death]; and undergoing or enduring [for Him and His cause]; an ardent desire or agony; ideally leads to one knowing God’s glory in painful identification with Him and His suffering; going through severe difficulties as part of persecution of one’s faith.”

• TRANSFORMED. The end result is found here; from the term, ‘Summorphoó’ [συμμορφόω]: “Jointly formed, conformed to or fashioned like unto; properly, sharing the same form from embodying the same inner (essential) reality; to be conformed to the glory of Christ; ‘to assimilate’ [to take on, absorb or integrate the very nature of Christ within us and our outward conduct]; to bring to a likeness; to cause to resemble; to convert into a like substance.”

COMMENTARY: 3:1-11. “‘Sincere Christians rejoice in Christ Jesus.’ The Prophet calls the False Prophets ‘dumb dogs,’ (Isa 56:10); to which the Apostle seems to refer. Dogs, for their malice against faithful professors of the Gospel of Christ, barking at them and biting them. They urged human works in opposition to the Faith of Christ; but Paul calls them evil workers. He calls them ‘The Concision;’ as they rent the Church of Christ and cut it to pieces. The work of religion is to no purpose, unless the heart is in it, and we must worship God in the strength and grace of the Divine Spirit …

‘True knowledge of Christ’ alters and changes men, their judgments and manners, and makes them as if made again anew. The believer prefers Christ, knowing that it is better for us to be without all worldly riches, than without Christ and His Word. Let us see what the Apostle resolved to cleave to, and that was Christ and Heaven … The Apostle was willing to do or to suffer anything, to attain the glorious Resurrection of saints. This hope and prospect carried him through all difficulties in his work. He did not hope to attain it through his own merit and righteousness, but through the merit and righteousness of Jesus Christ.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

Once more listen to Bonhoeffer, who drives this fiery Truth home to our very marrow.

THE CALL OF THE CROSS. “‘The Cross is laid on every Christian.’ The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is ‘the Call to abandon the attachments of this world.’ It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His Death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the Cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our Communion with Christ. ‘When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.’” – BONHOEFFER, 1937; edited

Beloved, this Faith is eight trillion light years from the insipidity of the American Gospel, so shamefully fraught with its own gains and its own outward glories. Thus we trek across entire star fields into some final considerations of what it is to be a ‘Serious Christian divinely appointed to these very Serious Times.’

1. LAST THOUGHTS

ERIC LIDDELL. “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast!
And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

My friends, it has taken me nearly 80 years to reach this frankly exhilarating Truth that 1924 Christian Olympian Eric Liddell reached much earlier in his too-short life. It has become for me the very Key that has unlocked the door to a Joy and sense of Fulfillment I have never before experienced.

And there is a name for it, though it’s a controversial one.

CHRISTIAN HEDONISM. “Over the years the name that I have given to my understanding of the massive role joy plays not only in the Christian life, but in all of creation and God’s purposes in it — is Christian Hedonism. And the shortest description of Christian Hedonism is ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.’

My pathway into this understanding over the last thirty years or so is mainly affected by Jonathan Edwards, C. S. Lewis, and the Apostle Paul, but it does reach back to my father. My father was probably the happiest man I have ever known, and yet he was filled and consumed with the ‘Glory of God.’ So there was this both-and in my father’s life that had to have a resolution or explanation some day. ‘Abundant Joy and total commitment to the Glory of God had to go together in some way.’” – JOHN PIPER, “What is Christian Hedonism?” Desiring God, Aug. 1, 2015; edited

Now you will please note the crucial difference between the young pastor’s frivolous “Theology of Play” and this deeply spiritual discipline that is in direct Obedience to Christ’s Highest Commandment.

“Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced (muzzled) the Sadducees, they gathered together. One of them, a lawyer [an expert in Mosaic Law], asked Jesus a question, to test Him: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’

And Jesus replied to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment.The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others]. The whole Law and the [writings of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.’” – MATTHEW 22:34-40, AMP

We have all read and studied and spoken and written of this passage seemingly forever. And yet it has only been in the last several years that I have gradually and sometimes painfully come to understand its immeasurable freedom and power. Jesus rightly said, this is ‘The Highest Commandment,’ and here’s why.

JOSEPH BARNES COMMENTS. “‘Jesus said unto him – Mark says that He introduced this by referring to the Doctrine of the Unity of God: ‘Hear, O Israel! the Lord thy God is one Lord’ – taken from Deuteronomy 6:4. This was said, probably, because all true obedience depends on the correct knowledge of God. None can keep His Commandments who are not acquainted with His nature, His perfections, and His right to command.

‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart’ – The meaning of this is, thou shalt love Him with all thy faculties or powers. Thou shalt love Him supremely, more than all other beings and things, and with all the ardor possible. To love Him with all the heart is to fix the affections supremely on Him, more strongly than on anything else, and to be willing to give up all that we hold dear at His command,

With all thy soul – Or, with all thy ‘life.’ This means, to be willing to give up the life to Him, and to devote it all to His service; to live to Him, ‘and to be willing to die at His command.’

‘With all thy mind’ – To submit the ‘intellect’ to His Will. To love His Law and Gospel more than we do the decisions of our own minds. To be willing to submit all our faculties to His Teaching and guidance, and to devote to Him all our intellectual attainments and all the results of our intellectual effort. ‘With all thy strength’ (Mark). With all the faculties of soul and body. To labor and toil for His glory, and to make that the great object of all our efforts.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

You getting this, beloved? The Secret to Joy Unspeakable is found right here, in the center of the very belly of the entire Christian Canon: OBEDIENCE! This is where we find ‘The Slip Stream’ that runner like Eric Liddell discovered, when we catch the Current of His Spiritual River, and virtually glide by His Power Purpose.

And we can feel it!

When we no longer care for whether we live or die, so long as we are giving Him ‘Pleasure’ as we face the next challenge or charge, as with ABRAM: “Now [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country, from your relatives and your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.’” – GENESIS 12:1, AMPC

This exhilarating condition always reminds me of the epic exchange between GANDALF and BILBO in the wonderful world of Tolkien’s Trilogy, The Hobbit (1937).

Gandalf: “I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”

Bilbo: “I should think so—in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them” …

Gandalf: “You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back.”

Bilbo: “You can promise that I’ll come back?”

Gandalf: “No. And if you do, you will not be the same.”

Once we attain to this ‘Grand Thrill of Adventure for Christ,’ everything changes! Everything. Here we rise each morning excited about what God shall do with us that day, despite the misgivings and the heartaches and yes, even the dangers.

Because all we wish to do is Give Him pleasure. Selah.

PAUL & PIPER’S BOTTOM LINE. “That brings us to … Philippians 1:2-21, the key text that settled for me that God is most glorified in us — or Christ is most magnified in us — when we are most satisfied in Him. ‘My eager expectation is that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, for’ and that little word became all-important. ‘For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ With that little word Paul grounds the certainty of his expectation that Christ will be magnified in his body when he lives and when he dies. Why? ‘Because for him to live is Christ and to die is gain’ …

This truth — God is most glorified in us, or Christ is most magnified in us, when we are most satisfied him — is not peripheral. This is not peripheral to the Christian life or peripheral to the book of Philippians. This is right at the heart of what it means to be a believer, what it means to belong to Jesus Christ, what it means to treasure and trust Jesus Christ. This is not icing on the cake of Christianity.

This is at the heart of Christianity.”

CODA. To fully know Him and the Fellowship of His sufferings is ‘the only Pathway’ to true joy and intimacy with the King. And those who choose this Path are promised a life of unspeakable wonder, endless adventure and joy that transcends the triviality of ‘normal’ human existence. In many ways, it is to live the courageous life of ‘The Warrior-Poet.’

It is the way Man was meant to live, beloved. The only way – His Way!

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