Only One Life

A Christian disciple is more than a believer. A disciple is more than a learner, at least, a learner in the ordinary sense of the word. A disciple is more than a follower and imitator of Christ, more than a holy enthusiast for Christ, yea even more than living a life of full devotion to the Lord. A disciple is a believing person living a life of conscious and constant identification with the Lord in life, death, and resurrection through words, behavior, attitudes, motives, and purpose, fully realizing Christ’s absolute ownership of his life, joyfully embracing the Saviorhood of Christ, delighting in the Lordship of Christ and living by the abiding, indwelling resources of Christ according to the imprinted pattern and purpose of Christ for the chief end of glorifying his Lord and Savior. There is divine fullness and content in the concept of discipleship which we must not limit. Larson, referring to a study by A. Friedrichsen, points out the fact that the expression cross-bearing was a contemporary metaphor indicating “radical social isolation and humiliation.”

The call to Christian discipleship must always be interpreted to involve a call to humble fellowship, constant fellowship, sanctified openmindedness, undisputed obedience, ready submission, heroic faith, arduous labor, unselfish service, self-renunciation, patient suffering, painful sacrifice, and cross-bearing. It is the bringing of all of life under the Lordship of Christ. This is not only the purpose of salvation, but this is the fullness of salvation—redemption from self and devotion to the Lord. And to this every Christian is called.

Too often, however, Christian discipleship has been detached from the everyday life of every believer and thought of in terms of the great, the heroic, and a peculiar sense of saintliness is being attached to it, instead of being lived out daily in the ordinary affairs of life and relationships.


The preceding has been taken from Dallas Theological Seminary, Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 120 (Dallas Theological Seminary, 1963; 2002), 120:327.