Discipleship apart from Jesus is nontransformational. It might improve your behavior, increase your happiness, or change your style. Transformation is more than a surface-level tweak; it's actually becoming something else entirely.
Philippians 3:12-21 (HCSB) |
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12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. 16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. 17 Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, 20 but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself. http://msb.to/Ph3:12 |
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Jesus' call to be His disciple isn't about changing your habits or your clothes; He changes the very fabric of your life. Jesus brings light to darkness. He brings death to life. He brings new to the old.
Not all discipleship is transformational, but transformation only comes through a life that is centered on Jesus.
How much do you expect God to transform you? How much do you try to do on your own?
Adapted from Transformational Discipleship by Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation