A Voice to the Faithful
A brethren periodical
Vol. II
1868
Discipleship
By an anonymous brother
Vol. II
1868
Discipleship
By an anonymous brother
[The First Step]
The first step in discipleship, the foundation for every other step, is the assured sense of the sufficiency of Christ apart from all else before God. This is the first step. It is not enough that I know He is my salvation; faith in Christ as the sacrifice for sins imparts an assurance of safety from judgment and a great joy in proportion to the sense of relief— many rejoice in salvation through Christ who do not walk as His disciples.
The Lord hath plainly declared, "Unless a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Now we see that there are many even happy believers in Christ who understand very little of this great renunciation. Nay, the very effort to reach it by restrictions or abstinence only proves that there has not been found in Christ Himself a clear and full deliverance from all of oneself, and at times there is an attempt to take a step further on, before the first has been learned.
Now this first step is a distinct and unqualified rest in Christ, before God; the sense of being nigh to Him and set in full acceptance (even the beloved's, Eph. 1:6) in the Father's house. A happy death bed simply illustrates it, for then Christ is everything to the soul, and He assures the heart of all joy and blessing in Himself. The first step in discipleship then is of this nature. It is the revelation to the soul of Christ, so above everything and outside and apart from everything, that there is an absolute sense of His sufficiency; and thus a virtual forsaking of all one's own; and it is this only which prepares one for following Him. It is quite evident that this step is not always taken at conversion. I do not say that it could not be; nay, I see no reason why it should not, because there can be no following of Christ, or learning of Him—no discipleship, until it is known. Paul, in Galatians, tells us how it was with himself, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
How can one be a disciple of Christ while clinging to that for which He was crucified? I do not mean to assert that a disciple has none of it cleaving to him, but there is a great deal of difference between one seeing and rejoicing in being outside and apart from oneself in nature, and pleading for one's right to remain in it. Surely there are saints who may be ranked under this latter head. The disciple must start with this—that all of himself has been crucified; and hence, that he forsakes it and now lives by Him who has risen from among the dead, in whom he has unbounded rest and joy before His God and our God; His Father and our Father. I cannot have both self and Christ. I cannot enjoy Christ risen out of judgment, as everything to me, and at the same time find anything to gratify me in that for which He was judged. It is not a question of salvation; faith in Him as the Lamb of God saves the soul, but it is a question of discipleship—of leaving all and following Him. I must find Him everything to me first, before I can make Him everything in my course here; and it is because souls fail in learning Him, in this blessed sufficiency (a lesson often deferred till some terrible trial or a death bed), which accounts for the low practical walk now manifested among Christians. Paul, in the light of that glory in which there was no place for himself, sees the Son of God, and finds that there, when God begins with him, is the goal for his soul, and the prize of his calling of God on high. Peter, in Luke 5, learns the superiority of Christ to everything, at the moment most gratifying to him as a man, even when he was exemplary in obedience and highly favoured in mercies.
Paul in the glory, and Peter in the midst of things naturally attractive, each learns that Christ is superior to everything. It is not whether they will maintain this sense all through their course here; but the point of importance is, that this conviction is the start, the needle of the compass; it may indeed vacillate and falter, but it knows the magnet and its controlling power. How can one really learn Christ, if one does not abide in Him? And to abide in Him, one must be outside of all that which is not of Him. Many hindrances or excuses will occur during the journey, but the point of all importance, and that which alone ensures discipleship, is this knowledge of Christ where all is sensibly done with, and He stands out before the soul in the presence of God, as the all in all. I do not speak here of the extent of this sense; I speak simply of the sense itself, as a well defined, well known, and effective thing, and that the inability in many to follow the Lord, is simply because they have not learned Him in this peculiar superiority. No doubt one deepens in it, as one cultivates it, but the thing for the soul to ascertain is, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the ark of perfect safety and satisfaction before God, while the wave of judgment rolls over all around; as it is said of Noah when the waters prevailed on the earth, "And the Lord shut him in." It is the sense of there being no help or expectation from anything that surrounds me, and this coincident with the fact that I am safe, secure, and abundantly happy in Christ, the ark, though I may have only just entered into the wondrous enclosure, I have the sense, that all is ruin outside, but all safety and rest inside.
But to explain. A soul may, like Abel, see by faith the value of Christ's sacrifice, and be assured through grace of acceptance; but this of itself is not discipleship. Enoch walking with God, gives one side of the disciple; and Noah, as in Christ, the ark—outside of the ruin and wreck here—the other side. When I, as an accepted one, walk with God, separated from all here in Christ, I am a disciple; I have entered on that path. We read that to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. Now the love for Christ is never full, until one sees that all must be abandoned for Him. He has full possession of the heart, if nothing else detains it. When all is abandoned, then His value is known. The delight of heart that a soul enjoys when first the blessedness of salvation has been tasted of, is often put in the place of that knowledge of Christ which is the first step in discipleship. I do not deny that the first step may accompany this delight, but what I would press is, that there is a difference between this delight, however controlling, and however impelling one to the greatest acts of devotedness, and discipleship. The great mark of distinction is this— in the former, the expression of devotedness is always with reference to the present scene, it gives honour to Christ in an earthly way. Jonathan, at great personal sacrifice, made David visibly and publicly the great and distinguished one. We read, "Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle." (1 Samuel 18) He loved him, he delighted in him as the saviour and deliverer; for more than this he knew not of David. But Jonathan did not follow David in his rejection; and thus, the very first step in discipleship was beyond him. It is quite possible, like "the woman that was a sinner" in Luke 7, to break the alabaster box on Christ, with reference to His place on earth; that is, to make Him distinctly an object of earthly consideration, and yet to be far practically from the intent of a similar act in John 12. The two acts are indeed similar, but the intent of each is widely different. Mary, in John 12, does it for His burial. She has entered on discipleship. She follows Him outside of all here, after the manner of Ruth, who, when there was no earthly inducement to follow Naomi, yea, when Naomi was rightly called Marah, follows her with a no less purpose than this: "Where thou diest, I will die, and there also will I be buried."
Discipleship cannot be entered on, till the soul has practically passed from all that would interpose between it and Christ, and till every blind and support is supplanted by Him. By various ways this is brought about. Mary, in the death of Lazarus, learns in that hour, as Jesus walked with her, the sufficiency of Himself when the human prop and intervention had been removed. Wondrous blessed moment! The feet set in a large place. "Ship" and everything abandoned to walk with Him who is above everything. (Compare Matt 14 with Eph 1) Discipleship is begun. May God in His mercy grant that there be many disciples in this day.
The Lord hath plainly declared, "Unless a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Now we see that there are many even happy believers in Christ who understand very little of this great renunciation. Nay, the very effort to reach it by restrictions or abstinence only proves that there has not been found in Christ Himself a clear and full deliverance from all of oneself, and at times there is an attempt to take a step further on, before the first has been learned.
Now this first step is a distinct and unqualified rest in Christ, before God; the sense of being nigh to Him and set in full acceptance (even the beloved's, Eph. 1:6) in the Father's house. A happy death bed simply illustrates it, for then Christ is everything to the soul, and He assures the heart of all joy and blessing in Himself. The first step in discipleship then is of this nature. It is the revelation to the soul of Christ, so above everything and outside and apart from everything, that there is an absolute sense of His sufficiency; and thus a virtual forsaking of all one's own; and it is this only which prepares one for following Him. It is quite evident that this step is not always taken at conversion. I do not say that it could not be; nay, I see no reason why it should not, because there can be no following of Christ, or learning of Him—no discipleship, until it is known. Paul, in Galatians, tells us how it was with himself, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."
How can one be a disciple of Christ while clinging to that for which He was crucified? I do not mean to assert that a disciple has none of it cleaving to him, but there is a great deal of difference between one seeing and rejoicing in being outside and apart from oneself in nature, and pleading for one's right to remain in it. Surely there are saints who may be ranked under this latter head. The disciple must start with this—that all of himself has been crucified; and hence, that he forsakes it and now lives by Him who has risen from among the dead, in whom he has unbounded rest and joy before His God and our God; His Father and our Father. I cannot have both self and Christ. I cannot enjoy Christ risen out of judgment, as everything to me, and at the same time find anything to gratify me in that for which He was judged. It is not a question of salvation; faith in Him as the Lamb of God saves the soul, but it is a question of discipleship—of leaving all and following Him. I must find Him everything to me first, before I can make Him everything in my course here; and it is because souls fail in learning Him, in this blessed sufficiency (a lesson often deferred till some terrible trial or a death bed), which accounts for the low practical walk now manifested among Christians. Paul, in the light of that glory in which there was no place for himself, sees the Son of God, and finds that there, when God begins with him, is the goal for his soul, and the prize of his calling of God on high. Peter, in Luke 5, learns the superiority of Christ to everything, at the moment most gratifying to him as a man, even when he was exemplary in obedience and highly favoured in mercies.
Paul in the glory, and Peter in the midst of things naturally attractive, each learns that Christ is superior to everything. It is not whether they will maintain this sense all through their course here; but the point of importance is, that this conviction is the start, the needle of the compass; it may indeed vacillate and falter, but it knows the magnet and its controlling power. How can one really learn Christ, if one does not abide in Him? And to abide in Him, one must be outside of all that which is not of Him. Many hindrances or excuses will occur during the journey, but the point of all importance, and that which alone ensures discipleship, is this knowledge of Christ where all is sensibly done with, and He stands out before the soul in the presence of God, as the all in all. I do not speak here of the extent of this sense; I speak simply of the sense itself, as a well defined, well known, and effective thing, and that the inability in many to follow the Lord, is simply because they have not learned Him in this peculiar superiority. No doubt one deepens in it, as one cultivates it, but the thing for the soul to ascertain is, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the ark of perfect safety and satisfaction before God, while the wave of judgment rolls over all around; as it is said of Noah when the waters prevailed on the earth, "And the Lord shut him in." It is the sense of there being no help or expectation from anything that surrounds me, and this coincident with the fact that I am safe, secure, and abundantly happy in Christ, the ark, though I may have only just entered into the wondrous enclosure, I have the sense, that all is ruin outside, but all safety and rest inside.
But to explain. A soul may, like Abel, see by faith the value of Christ's sacrifice, and be assured through grace of acceptance; but this of itself is not discipleship. Enoch walking with God, gives one side of the disciple; and Noah, as in Christ, the ark—outside of the ruin and wreck here—the other side. When I, as an accepted one, walk with God, separated from all here in Christ, I am a disciple; I have entered on that path. We read that to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. Now the love for Christ is never full, until one sees that all must be abandoned for Him. He has full possession of the heart, if nothing else detains it. When all is abandoned, then His value is known. The delight of heart that a soul enjoys when first the blessedness of salvation has been tasted of, is often put in the place of that knowledge of Christ which is the first step in discipleship. I do not deny that the first step may accompany this delight, but what I would press is, that there is a difference between this delight, however controlling, and however impelling one to the greatest acts of devotedness, and discipleship. The great mark of distinction is this— in the former, the expression of devotedness is always with reference to the present scene, it gives honour to Christ in an earthly way. Jonathan, at great personal sacrifice, made David visibly and publicly the great and distinguished one. We read, "Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle." (1 Samuel 18) He loved him, he delighted in him as the saviour and deliverer; for more than this he knew not of David. But Jonathan did not follow David in his rejection; and thus, the very first step in discipleship was beyond him. It is quite possible, like "the woman that was a sinner" in Luke 7, to break the alabaster box on Christ, with reference to His place on earth; that is, to make Him distinctly an object of earthly consideration, and yet to be far practically from the intent of a similar act in John 12. The two acts are indeed similar, but the intent of each is widely different. Mary, in John 12, does it for His burial. She has entered on discipleship. She follows Him outside of all here, after the manner of Ruth, who, when there was no earthly inducement to follow Naomi, yea, when Naomi was rightly called Marah, follows her with a no less purpose than this: "Where thou diest, I will die, and there also will I be buried."
Discipleship cannot be entered on, till the soul has practically passed from all that would interpose between it and Christ, and till every blind and support is supplanted by Him. By various ways this is brought about. Mary, in the death of Lazarus, learns in that hour, as Jesus walked with her, the sufficiency of Himself when the human prop and intervention had been removed. Wondrous blessed moment! The feet set in a large place. "Ship" and everything abandoned to walk with Him who is above everything. (Compare Matt 14 with Eph 1) Discipleship is begun. May God in His mercy grant that there be many disciples in this day.
[The Second Step]
The first step in discipleship is entered on when the soul has reached the sense that Christ is enough for it, above and apart from everything, so that one can leave all and follow Him. But after this, there is an entirely new path opened out to me. If I say, I abide in Him, I must walk even as He walked. I have to walk by faith and not by sight. There is a race set before me, and it is not only that Christ is enough for me before God, but I must make Him my object here on earth, where all is against Him; laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth most easily beset me; looking out unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. The walk of faith, as with Abram at first, necessarily obliges me to separate from all that which, in the first step of discipleship, I have found unsuited for the presence of Christ, in whom I have now my rest. And hence the trial is to preserve practically, in every varied circumstance and state, that separation which the soul entire on when Christ is enough for it.
When the ways of man on the restored earth, after the flood, betrayed his complete and thorough departure from God, Abram is called out to walk here in dependence on God, waiting on Him for place and possession. A man of God on the earth, where everything was contrary to God, could take no other place. A high and distinguished place it was to be set in, here for God on earth; and the exaction,—the terms of the call necessarily were, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." Excision and separation from all that which suits and ministers to man naturally, becomes the walk of faith. If all that which suits me naturally is opposed to God, the moment I take my place as dependent on God, nothing can be simpler, than that the action incumbent on me, is to break distinctly and definitely with it. I have to do with God in a scene where He has been disowned and forgotten, hence the call must embrace my country, my kindred, and my father's house.
It is literally the race set before me; and as I run, I lay aside every weight, and sin;—which is my evil self. The awakening of the heart, to obey the call, is faith. But then faith is tried; and it does not reach its satisfaction, or its proper work, until what hinders it is overcome. Abram does not get into Canaan until his father is dead. What is entered on, in the first step of discipleship, must be maintained in walk here. Peter, after he had left all, and followed Christ in joy of heart, had to learn the power of faith, which would only enable him to walk superior to himself. Abram's father figuratively sets forth the nature which links us to all here, that from which we have had our origin, from which we spring. Now, until we are by faith able to break with nature in obedience to God, we are not practically in the walk of a disciple which is the next step in discipleship. Peter did not feel the necessity of breaking this link, until he was painfully taught the weakness and evil of the flesh, when He denied the Lord. His confidence in his own nature hindered him as a disciple; he had not broken with it; his father (figuratively speaking) was not dead. That which links us to nature as men, is comprised in the call of Abram; and it will be found that there is a check always to the walk of faith, or in other words, to running the race, when the heart is occupied or turned aside by either country, kindred, or father's house.
A very little self-examination will show us how we lose our true place here for God in a world which has rejected His Son, when we drop into thought about either one or other of the three. Nothing more insidiously diverts us from the leading of God's Spirit than thinking or talking of ourselves and our natural associations; and nothing so effectually deadens and darkens the soul. We enter the path of faith when we practically maintain what we learned in the first step of discipleship. It is ever easier to attain to a height than to maintain it.
When the ways of man on the restored earth, after the flood, betrayed his complete and thorough departure from God, Abram is called out to walk here in dependence on God, waiting on Him for place and possession. A man of God on the earth, where everything was contrary to God, could take no other place. A high and distinguished place it was to be set in, here for God on earth; and the exaction,—the terms of the call necessarily were, " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." Excision and separation from all that which suits and ministers to man naturally, becomes the walk of faith. If all that which suits me naturally is opposed to God, the moment I take my place as dependent on God, nothing can be simpler, than that the action incumbent on me, is to break distinctly and definitely with it. I have to do with God in a scene where He has been disowned and forgotten, hence the call must embrace my country, my kindred, and my father's house.
It is literally the race set before me; and as I run, I lay aside every weight, and sin;—which is my evil self. The awakening of the heart, to obey the call, is faith. But then faith is tried; and it does not reach its satisfaction, or its proper work, until what hinders it is overcome. Abram does not get into Canaan until his father is dead. What is entered on, in the first step of discipleship, must be maintained in walk here. Peter, after he had left all, and followed Christ in joy of heart, had to learn the power of faith, which would only enable him to walk superior to himself. Abram's father figuratively sets forth the nature which links us to all here, that from which we have had our origin, from which we spring. Now, until we are by faith able to break with nature in obedience to God, we are not practically in the walk of a disciple which is the next step in discipleship. Peter did not feel the necessity of breaking this link, until he was painfully taught the weakness and evil of the flesh, when He denied the Lord. His confidence in his own nature hindered him as a disciple; he had not broken with it; his father (figuratively speaking) was not dead. That which links us to nature as men, is comprised in the call of Abram; and it will be found that there is a check always to the walk of faith, or in other words, to running the race, when the heart is occupied or turned aside by either country, kindred, or father's house.
A very little self-examination will show us how we lose our true place here for God in a world which has rejected His Son, when we drop into thought about either one or other of the three. Nothing more insidiously diverts us from the leading of God's Spirit than thinking or talking of ourselves and our natural associations; and nothing so effectually deadens and darkens the soul. We enter the path of faith when we practically maintain what we learned in the first step of discipleship. It is ever easier to attain to a height than to maintain it.
[The Third Step]
To attain is the first thing; to maintain what we have reached is the next. Now in the path of faith we are called to maintain the sufficiency of Christ, above everything of nature. It is the maintaining of that which we have already learned; and hence we are tested by everything of nature. Abram did not enter on the path of faith fully till he broke with nature (in the death of his father); but after he had entered on it, and knew assuredly that he was in it, the altar and the tent witnessing to it, and the appearing of the Lord confirming it, he encounters trials he had little reckoned on. There is a famine in the land: his faith gives way, and he goes down into Egypt. In the first stage of the walk of faith, I am taught the weakness of my own nature, and what I must be proof against; but when I am really in the power of faith, as Abram was on his return from Egypt, I seek no present portion. I am now able to escape the snare into which Lot fell; still a root of Egypt remains, and Ishmael springs up. But here again I must rise above nature—I must cast out the bondwoman and her son. These are proofs of the truthfulness of my dependence on God; and they mark the walk of the disciple here.
Lastly, Abraham reaches the end of himself (that which springs from him) when he offers up Isaac. With the surrender of Isaac every hope to nature was at an end, and discipleship in walk of faith is reached when, like him, one can rise above all the ties and prospects of nature, and rest in God who raiseth the dead. Thus, in practice, one arrives at the point from which one had started, and the course here;—the orbit, is completed. Christ's power is made known to the soul in its varied qualities; I, not only possessing life in the Spirit, but the Spirit having filled my soul with the sense of His sufficiency, I prove the truth of it by the Spirit in my walk here; and " this one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I understand the exhortation, "Be ye followers of me, and mark those who walk as ye have us for an ensample.'' Self being left behind, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ engrosses and satisfies my heart. I not only have tasted of His sufficiency, but, having combated all my nature, I have, in victory over it, reached that boasting in Christ, in the strength of which I count all but dung that I may have Him for my gain. When nature is thus superseded by Christ—that is, when every privation and blank from which it suffers is filled up by Christ, and He is known in the relief which His sympathy can only afford, even as He was known to Mary at the grave of Lazarus — nothing then remains for such a one but to anoint Him, as she did, for His burial. This anointing of the body of Jesus for His burial is expressedly communion with Him as He was here; and no one can reach this point until he has first learned in its course here, how entirely Christ satisfies him in the varied trials he has to pass through, and it is this that the walk of the disciple reaches unto.
To sum up. The first step of discipleship is known when I have so learned in my soul the sufficiency of Christ that I can leave all behind—forsake all for Him. The next [second] is, when in my walk here, in contact with the varied things which act on my nature [self],* I am able to deny myself, and rise superior to them, in knowledge of the gain that I have in Him; so much that I count all things but dung, that it may be so; and press on to the mark where there will be full enjoyment of Him. The third is, when the things of Christ are my interest, simply because I have found all my own interests satisfied and secured in Him; but I cannot enter on this step of discipleship unless I have first been relieved by Him of every one of my own.
*Any bracketed items were added for clarification and were not a part of the original article.
Lastly, Abraham reaches the end of himself (that which springs from him) when he offers up Isaac. With the surrender of Isaac every hope to nature was at an end, and discipleship in walk of faith is reached when, like him, one can rise above all the ties and prospects of nature, and rest in God who raiseth the dead. Thus, in practice, one arrives at the point from which one had started, and the course here;—the orbit, is completed. Christ's power is made known to the soul in its varied qualities; I, not only possessing life in the Spirit, but the Spirit having filled my soul with the sense of His sufficiency, I prove the truth of it by the Spirit in my walk here; and " this one thing I do, forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I understand the exhortation, "Be ye followers of me, and mark those who walk as ye have us for an ensample.'' Self being left behind, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ engrosses and satisfies my heart. I not only have tasted of His sufficiency, but, having combated all my nature, I have, in victory over it, reached that boasting in Christ, in the strength of which I count all but dung that I may have Him for my gain. When nature is thus superseded by Christ—that is, when every privation and blank from which it suffers is filled up by Christ, and He is known in the relief which His sympathy can only afford, even as He was known to Mary at the grave of Lazarus — nothing then remains for such a one but to anoint Him, as she did, for His burial. This anointing of the body of Jesus for His burial is expressedly communion with Him as He was here; and no one can reach this point until he has first learned in its course here, how entirely Christ satisfies him in the varied trials he has to pass through, and it is this that the walk of the disciple reaches unto.
To sum up. The first step of discipleship is known when I have so learned in my soul the sufficiency of Christ that I can leave all behind—forsake all for Him. The next [second] is, when in my walk here, in contact with the varied things which act on my nature [self],* I am able to deny myself, and rise superior to them, in knowledge of the gain that I have in Him; so much that I count all things but dung, that it may be so; and press on to the mark where there will be full enjoyment of Him. The third is, when the things of Christ are my interest, simply because I have found all my own interests satisfied and secured in Him; but I cannot enter on this step of discipleship unless I have first been relieved by Him of every one of my own.
*Any bracketed items were added for clarification and were not a part of the original article.