The Purposes of Discipleship – Part 4

by Leland Earls

[Purpose 6: To Develop an Unshakeable Faith]

In the last article on this study in “Discipleship”, I was dealing with the Purposes of Discipleship, having concluded with No. 5, which I thought was to be the last. However, the Lord has made it clear to me that there is a sixth that I should briefly deal with. There are no doubt more, but some tend to “overlap,” so I believe that this No.6 will conclude this section. In “discipleship,” Jesus is seeking to develop in us an unshakable and uncompromising FAITH in HIM and His WORD, that through that “channel” of faith, we might not only enjoy and profit from the blessings and benefits of His Kingdom Rule, but that He might cause to grow (through His Divine impartation) the FRUITS that reflect “Kingdom living.”

First, it must be clearly understood that there is a difference between “head” (intellectual) belief or assent to truth, and “heart” faith. Jesus made it clear that the “seed” of His Word must “take root” in the heart in order to produce that which He desires: “but that (seed) on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Lk. 8:15). The “heart” stands for the entire “inner man” (Ephes. 3:16; I Pet. 3:4), which involves thoughts, motives, emotions, conscience and will. ALL of these are involved in true heart faith.

In light of the above, we might say that “heart faith” involves a number of “ingredients.” Without seeking to go into all of the scriptures to confirm this perspective, just let me mention some of the ingredients that are inseparably connected with (and make possible) heart faith, such as repentance, confession, obedience, patience, steadfastness, commitment, confidence (or assurance), hope, a clear conscience, rest, trust, and love. I simply cannot elaborate on all these in this present study. I have written an article on the “Three Elements of Divine Faith ” which gives the basic essentials of faith and is available upon request. [Ed note: This article is not made available through First Love Ministry, but may be obtained from Shepherdsfield in a compendium of articles published under the name Biblical Threes .]

[ The Necessity of Repentance to Faith ]

I do believe I should make a few comments on repentance. For, repentance is that which prepares the “soil” of one’s heart to receive the “seed” of the Word which causes faith to ” take root” and grow into ” fruitfulness.”Without repentance there can be a head (intellectual) beliefin facts or truths of the Word of God, but certainly no heart faith which makes possible the ” new birth” experience and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The importance of repentance in connection with true heart faith is a study in itself and will not be dealt with in detail here, but we need to go no further than to note that Jesus began His preaching ministry with the words, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent [ ], and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

[ – More Than a Change of Mental Assent ]

In the Greek, “to repent” means “to think differently after” — after one has heard the truth of God’s Word and realizes he must change his thinking to agree with what God says. The Greek word is metanoeo (verb form). The “meta” is a prefix meaning “after,” and the rest of the word comes from the Greek nous, which means “mind.” In the Greek, however, “mind” has a somewhat broader meaning than in the English. Quoting Strong’s concordance on the Greek word nous: “the intellect, i.e. mind (divine or human; in thought, feeling, or will).” Thus “repentance” means more than just an intellectual change of thinking. It also involves the feelings and the will (implying conviction and action). Thus it indicates a total “about face” in one’s life—a complete “turning away” from one’s former “way of life” (thinking, feeling, acting) t o GOD’S WAY. We might say that repentance is the “breaking up of the fallow (undisturbed, unattended) ground” (Jer. 4:3) of our hearts, that the ” seed” of the WORD (which produces heart faith — see Rom. 10:17) might “take root” and bring forth FRUIT!

I believe I have alluded to “fruit” before so will not elaborate now. But Jesus makes it clear in John 15:8 that “bearing fruit” is one of the primary evidences of discipleship: “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.” “Fruit” is a figure of speech indicating the attributes and character qualities that the Lord purposes to develop in our lives. Just as fruit grows and matures slowly over a period of time, so does it require the continual submission of our lives to the Lord’s working IN our lives to enable Him to produce the fruits of righteous, goodness, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance, mercy (John 15:8-17; Ephes. 5:9; James 3:17). You will notice that the New Testament mentions twelve fruits. Just as the tree of life in the New Jerusalem bears twelve kinds of fruit, so are we (as trees planted by the Lord — Ps. 92: 12-13; 52:8; 1:3) are to also “bear” (by the Lord’s working IN our lives) twelve kinds of spiritual “fruit.”

But back to faith and repentance. The two cannot be separated. Jesus said, ” Repent [ ] and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Peter, on the day of Pentecost declared, “Repent, and be baptized (an act of faith). Paul testified to both Jews and Greeks, ” repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38, 20:21). Rom. 10:10 says that “with the heart man believe s to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” Now listen to my words: It is impossible to believe with the heart unless one has first repented. The reason is explained in the second to last paragraph above, and need not be repeated here. I quoted Rom. 10:10 that “confession” is to be made with the mouth; vs. 9 tells us what we are to confess; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord.” Now if you will just think for a moment, you will realize that if one truly confesses Jesus as LORD, it is an important indication that one has truly repented.

[ – A Surrendered Acknowledgement of New Divine Ownership]

My reasoning for the above is as follows. The Greek word for Lord — kurios — means “to have dominion over,” “to rule,” to be supreme in authority,” and “belonging to.” It was used in Bible times to indicate one as a “Master” who owned slaves, and thus had supreme authority over them. Now, when a person comes to the place where he is willing to truly confess Jesus as LORD, it indicates that he realizes that he is ” not his own,” but that he has been ” bought with a price” (I Cor. 6:19-20), for when Jesus died on the cross He “purchased” the fallen human race, and that we are His “slaves.” The Greek word doulos is used many times in the New Testament to indicate one who is a slave, although the King James Version invariably translates the word “servant.” The New American Standard vacillates between “bond-servant” and “slave.” [Here is] a scripture correctly translated by the NAS, and although I have quoted it before, I will use it again to vividly illustrate the point I am seeking to make: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master . It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and a slave as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household (Mt. 10:24-25).” Jesus also declares in John 13:13: “You call me Teacher and Lord , and you are right; for so I am.” (NAS version)

Now back to my main point. Jesus as LORD means that He is supreme in authority. For one to “confess Jesus as Lord” (see Rom. 10:9), and really mean it, indicates that he has come to realize that he is “not his own” — that he no longer has any right to govern or rule his own life and “do his own thing” — for he must submit his life to the authority and supreme rulership of Jesus Christ. And this is the evidence of true repentance. This also confirms the Biblical perspective which I have been seeking to convey, that “salvation” (the “new birth” — imparting the GIFT of eternal LIFE), comes only through true repentance and heart faith . We must realize, however, that when a newly repentant heart believer confesses Jesus as Lord, this does not mean that such a one fully realizes ALL the implications and ramifications of surrendering his life to Jesus’ LORDSHIP. It becomes a learning and growing experience — even a lifetime of ever-increasing understanding of just what Jesus’ Lordship over every aspect of one’s life (in word, thought, attitude, motive, and action) really means — and all the “ways” in which it is implemented. And this is where discipleship comes in, because a true disciple of Jesus Christ never quits learning and changing.

My “burden” in sharing the foregoing is based on my conviction that the vast majority of professing Christians have never been ” born anew .” They are simply ” head believers,” assenting to certain knowledge of facts about Jesus Christ and His redemptive work, but only intellectually. They have never come to a personal (experiential) knowledge of Jesus Christ, to where He is a “living reality” in their hearts and lives. This is because they have never truly repented, with “godly sorrow” (II Cor. 7: 11), renouncing the sin and selfishness which caused them to “run” their own lives the way they wanted to — doing “their own thing,” and with humbleness of heart acknowledging the claims of Jesus Christ on their lives as their Lord (redeemer — owner and master) and turning their lives over to Him as their supreme authority to seek to do His will. Christianity is not a “religion” but a ” relationship” — a personal “knowing” of Jesus Christ, and then a continual “building” of that relationship through daily communion, prayer, praise and worship, meditation in the Word, fellowship and interaction with other “born again” Christians in love,etc .

[ – But Not the “Means” of Salvation ]

Before leaving this phase of our study, I want to give a warning to what I believe is a serious error. Although conditioned on our heart response to Jesus as our Savior and Lord, salvation is clearly indicated by God’s Word to be a GIFT (as a “seed” is a gift to the soil that has been prepared—even so we receive the gift of “eternal life” within when we are “born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God” (I Pet. 1:23), pass from death to life at that instant (John 5:24), and can know that we have eternal life (I John 5:10-13). Some are teaching, however, that only after we have become disciples and have learned to follow, Jesus can we receive eternal life. This is like putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Discipleship is to train us in the ways of the Lord AFTER we have been “born” into the Kingdom-family of God. I sought to make this clear in the first article in the section on “The Position of Discipleship,” but felt to re-emphasize it here.

[Ed. Comment: Bro. Earls skillfully negotiates between the pitfalls of false repentance teaching which either denies the necessity of repentance in order to receive the gift of spirit new birth (“easy believism”) or makes the gift of new birth dependent on discipleship acts of repentance (hence no longer truly a gift, but a works salvation contrary to Paul’s teaching). In his later teaching, The First and the Last, Bro. Earls does acknowledge a lesser “provisional” stage of salvation through faith that can indeed be lost. This would be a salvation by faith without adequate repentance to produce new birth of the heart. While Bro. Earls does not acknowledge it, I would also advance that there is a further salvation of soul beyond spirit rebirth that is dependent on obedience to the Spirit (not the letter) of discipleship which Paul describes as being “worked out with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) and Peter indicates is received as the “end” of our faith (I Pet. 1:9).]