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By Michele PasleyChapter 11: Practical Wisdom
Introduction
Creation, fall, redemption, restoration: The four acts of the Christian Story, or metanarrative, explain
God’s work in human history and form an overview of the Christian worldview. God’s Story did not end
in the first century; God has continued working through the past 2,000 years and God is still writing the
Story today. Just as people in the past had a part in the Story, so too do people today. Just as people in
the past had the option to choose to live wisely, today people have that choice as well. The choice to live
wisely is not only a choice for individuals, but for whole communities of people. Chapters 11 and 12 will
center on restoration, the fourth act of the Story, focusing on God’s continuing work of restoring broken
people, communities, and eventually, all of creation, so that they are brought to wholeness characterized
by God’s love, justice, beauty, and wisdom.
Restoration: The Fourth Act of the Biblical Story The biblical story began with God’s love, grace, creativity, and wisdom overflowing in the ordered work
of creation, culminating in the creation of human beings (Genesis 1). God, in his wisdom, created man
and woman to be co-rulers over creation, remaining faithful to the love, justice, beauty, design, and order
that God initiated from the very beginning (Genesis 1:26-30). However, humanity failed to remain
faithful to the wisdom of God’s design for creation, and instead, chose to do things their own way,
departing from wisdom by turning away from God through disobedience. Humanity fell and began to live
under the curse of sin (Genesis 3). Instead of a beautiful creation operating under the fullness of love
and justice, brokenness, pain, and suffering entered the world. Rather than wisely caring for the created
world as partners, sin fractured the relationship between men and women and resulted in power
struggles and the domination of one sex over another (Genesis 3). The choice to depart from wisdom and
choose sin caused brokenness then, and it causes brokenness today; however, brokenness does not have
the last word. Out of his great love, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world. Through his
death and resurrection, Jesus provided redemption from sin and restoration from brokenness, both for
individuals and for the whole of creation (Romans 5; Colossians 1:19-20; Hebrews 8-10; 1 John 4:9-10).
The world is being set right; things broken by the curse of sin and departure from wisdom are being
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The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand; repent
and believe in the gospel (Mark
1:15)
overturned and restored. Men and women no longer have to live with one dominating the other. People
can now live free from the power of sin and destruction. There is hope that one day everything will be
full of goodness again and creation will be realigned to the wisdom of God’s design. The process has
begun and will continue until the eventual restoration of all things, when everything is made new—new
heavens, new earth, and new bodies for people (Revelation 21-22).
Today, the world still bears the scars and brokenness of humanity’s choice of sin instead of wisdom and
obedience, but sin no longer has the power it once did. Jesus conquered sin and death through his
sacrificial death and the power of his resurrection, and now he is setting everything right. Jesus came
proclaiming the reality of God’s kingdom and inviting people to life within the kingdom where Jesus the
King rules with love, grace, mercy, justice, and wisdom. The invitation to life in the kingdom is extended
to all people. Life in the kingdom is characterized not by sin, brokenness, and foolishness, but by healing,
wholeness, and wisdom. God invites all people to be changed, redeemed, and restored. As discussed in
Chapter 5, Jesus paid the penalty for people’s sin with his sacrifice on the cross, redeeming them from
the bondage of sin to freedom and new life. Freed from sin to new life, Jesus restores people, healing the
scars of sin and brokenness, and making them new. They become restored to wholeness and are able to
live lives marked by an abundance of grace and love. The topic of restoration, God making people whole,
began in Chapter 6, but will continue in Chapters 11 and 12. God’s Story is not finished. It is still lived out
day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and minute-by-minute. People today have a place in the Story.
This chapter will explore how people today fit within the fourth act of God’s Story, and what it means for
people, as individuals and communities, to live wisely. The chapter begins with a discussion of the
overarching theme of the Kingdom of God, which was introduced previously in Chapters 3 and 5, and
moves into a discussion of what wisdom means within the kingdom. The chapter then moves on to a
discussion of God’s mission to redeem people, free them from sin and brokenness, and then restore them
to wholeness. This is followed by an explanation of how people have the choice to be a part of God’s
mission, and ends with a discussion of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. These major sections offer
invitations for people to consider how they might choose to live with practical wisdom today.
The Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God is central to Jesus’ message of hope, wholeness, and wisdom, but throughout
history, people have often used the term in ways that Jesus never intended. While the Kingdom of God is
crucial to God’s story of restoration, it is one of the most misunderstood and misused concepts in
history. Within the Christian worldview, living according to the values of the kingdom is living according
to the practical wisdom of God’s design for humanity and the rest of his creation. Thus, it is important to
understand what Jesus meant by the term Kingdom of God and what it means to live in the Kingdom of
God today.
When Jesus began his public ministry, he came teaching about God's kingdom, "The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 English Standard Version).
Another way of translating Jesus’ message is to say “… the kingdom of God has come near…” (Mark 1:15,
New International Version). Through Jesus, God came near to people. Jesus, who was fully God, became
fully human and walked among people in a particular time and place. He fully embodied the name
prophesied centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah (7:14, ESV), Immanuel, which means “God with us.”
Jesus, the king of the kingdom was not distant, but had come near. As he came, he called the people to
believe the good news that God was with them and the broken world would be restored. The invitation
he extended to people in the past is still an invitation to people today: have a change of mind and choose
to move from living in the kingdom of this world to living in the Kingdom of God. Move from brokenness
to wholeness. Move from despair to hope. Move from slavery to freedom. Move from sin to freedom.
Move from death to life.
The idea of a kingdom can seem foreign to
Westerners in the twenty-first century, but
to Jesus’ original hearers in first-century
Palestine, the concept was not alien at all. In
the first century, people lived under the rule
of kings and emperors. In the small country
of Israel, the people were ruled by a king
who had been appointed by the Roman
emperor. Ultimately, Rome was the ruling
power, and since its conquest of Israel, the Jewish people had longed for freedom. Revolts had been
common since the second century B.C. as the Jews tried to throw off the rule of their captors and
reestablish an independent kingdom. When Jesus arrived on the scene, people were expecting the
Messiah who had been promised through the Old Testament to deliver them from Roman rule (Matthew
21:1-11; Acts 1:6).
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Indeed, Jesus did come to set people free and to usher them into his kingdom, but his kingdom did not
look like what they expected. Rather than freeing people from Rome, he freed people from sin. God’s
sovereign, saving rule of generous love had come to take back the world that had been captured by evil,
corruption, and decay (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014). Whether people lived as citizens in Rome or
slaves in Israel, as subjects of God’s kingdom, they could be free from sin and the powers that had held
them in spiritual, emotional, and relational bondage. The kingdom in which Jesus is king is not and has
never been restricted by geography; the kingdom is not a place, but the “fact that God rules” (Wright,
1999, p. 6). God is present and actively reigning in the world (Willard, 2014) and everyone and
everything that by choice or by nature follows the principles of his rule is within his kingdom (Willard,
1998). People anywhere can choose to live under the presence, rule, and influence of God, embracing
freedom from the power of sin and a life marked by love, justice, beauty, grace, and wisdom.
Over the past 2,000 years, people have repeatedly tried to force the Kingdom of God into a physical
kingdom. For example, in 313 A.D. the Roman emperor Constantine issued an edict declaring that
Christianity was legal, which set the stage for its later adoption as the official religion of the empire.
When Christianity became a state religion placed under the control of human rulers, the message of
Jesus became diluted and distorted, and in some cases, people began to be Christian in name only.
During the Middle Ages, crusaders from Europe cut a path of destruction through the ancient Near East,
erroneously assuming that God’s kingdom should be a physical kingdom under their control, abusing
people through their misunderstanding and misuse of the term Kingdom of God. At times, people in
Europe and North America have tried to combine the state and the church in an attempt to form the
Kingdom of God in their own political image. These misunderstandings of the Kingdom of God have
caused turmoil, suffering, and destruction for many people throughout the centuries and have caused
people to reject the true kingdom because of the impact of false kingdoms.
The Wisdom of God’s Kingdom The wisdom of God’s kingdom is often perceived as foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
because the values of the kingdom, and the definition of wisdom within the kingdom, differ from the way
the broken world works. In the Kingdom of God, Jesus is king of an upside-down kingdom in which the
first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 19:20; Matthew 20:16). Greatness in God’s kingdom is
not defined by power, but by service (Mark 10:42-45; John 13:1-20). In God’s kingdom, people who may
be marginalized elsewhere, are blessed with God’s favor and welcomed into a place of belonging
(Matthew 5:3-11; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 7:36-50; John 4). In God’s kingdom, people lose their life to save
it (Matthew 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35). More unusual still is the fact that in Jesus’ kingdom the king
himself does not call the people to do anything he has not already done on their behalf. Jesus, the king,
gave up his privileges and status to serve people.
… Christ Jesus… though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8).
Jesus gave up his status in order to become human. As a human, he served. Jesus served others, washing
their feet, healing their bodies, casting out demons, and giving them new life. Ultimately, he served by his
sacrifice on the cross, setting humanity free from the power of sin and death and establishing a new way
of life. In this new way of life, this new kind of kingdom, not only can people live under his rule of
freedom, grace, and wholeness, but also can serve like the king by extending the wisdom of his kingdom
to the world, bringing hope and healing to people and communities. When followers of Jesus serve their
families, neighbors, coworkers, and communities, they advance the kingdom. When followers of Christ
form relationships with marginalized people and advocate for justice on their behalf, they announce the
kingdom. When bosses who serve Jesus lead their employees by serving them, they bring the kingdom.
When hungry people are fed in the name of Jesus, the kingdom comes. When kingdom citizens serve like
Jesus served, love like Jesus loved, and give like Jesus gave, God’s kingdom reigns and his will is done on
earth just as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
The Kingdom of God is here. Jesus is near. There is still more to come, though. The Kingdom of God is
both already and not yet. Life in the kingdom has been initiated, but not fully realized. Ultimately, Jesus
will return, and the restoration of this world to the wisdom of God’s design will be complete. Jesus will
give people new bodies; heaven and earth will come together as a new heaven and a new earth. The
Kingdom of God will reign completely as God dwells with people and reigns with justice, grace, mercy,
wisdom, and beauty. Everything will be fully made right.
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A few years ago, the people of a church in the center of Phoenix, Arizona recognized that the
neighborhood around the church had changed, and there was a need for a broken community to be
healed. The people of the church wanted to live out God’s wisdom and bring the kingdom to their
broken neighborhood. They started by observing the brokenness around them.
As they looked at their community, they saw that terrified refugees from war torn countries were
flocking to the neighborhood. In this neighborhood's schools, 100% of the children qualified for
free breakfast and lunch programs and often had nothing to eat over the weekends. Families were
being torn apart as parents were deported and children remained behind with distant relatives.
Sex trafficking and prostitution was happening on the sidewalk next to the church. A drug ring was
operating out of the house three doors down from the church. People in the neighborhood were
trapped in poverty without the basic reading and writing skills needed to get jobs.
People were in pain and living in despair, but God’s kingdom is about healing and wholeness. The
kingdom is about restructuring lives and communities to match the practical wisdom of God’s
design for his creation. So, the people in the church began living out the kingdom by building
relationships with people in the neighborhood to share the love of Jesus. They partnered with the
schools and started offering weekend breakfast to kids and families, sitting down together at the
table and becoming friends. They opened food and clothing banks, praying with people and sharing
the kingdom message of healing through Jesus at the same time they shared food and clothes. In
order to see people receive the skills needed to get jobs and provide for their families, the church
invited health agencies, GED programs, and early childhood training classes to be a part of their
community. They invited people to be a part of the church family and to meet Jesus, who is the one
to bring complete healing when lives are broken.
Coming to the church for a job program, a young woman named Andrea was overwhelmed by the
acceptance and love offered by the people. After a year of working with the job program, she chose
a life with Jesus for herself. With tears running down her face, she told a group of new friends from
the church, “I didn’t know people like this existed; I never knew love like this existed.” Life in that
church community became messy, unpredictable, and alive with the healing presence of Jesus. The
Apart from the occasional funhouse mirrors that distort images of their subjects, mirrors reflect
reality. Most of the time, people look into a mirror to understand what something really looks like.
When people look straight into a mirror, their own image is reflected back to them; however, when
a mirror is angled, it reflects something above, below, or to the side. Followers of Christ are to be
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The Mission of God
Simon Bening, Christ Washing the Apostles’ Feet, c. 1525-1530. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California.
Making everything right is not something that happens without intention. As discussed in Chapter 3,
God was intentional about creating the world with order, and he is intentional about restoring it so that
it aligns once again with the wisdom of his design. God is on a mission. The mission of God is to restore a
world broken by sin, and this mission flows out of his character. God is a self-sending God whose
immense and sacrificial love is the overarching characteristic of his mission of redemption and
restoration for the world. Out of his character of love, God sends himself to the world. God’s very nature
is one of sending himself, always “going, coming, sending in mission… sending and being sent is
fundamental to who God is and what God does (they are one and the same)” (Fitch & Holsclaw, 2013b, p.
27). God sent Jesus to the world, not to condemn the world but to save the world (John 3:16-17). God’s
sending did not stop with Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; God’s sending
continues in the Father and Son sending the Holy Spirit as “an extension of the Son’s presence through
the Church—the Body of Christ” (Fitch & Holsclaw, 2013a, p. 396). The people of the church participate
in the sending mission of Jesus when they share God’s love and healing with the world through the
power of the Holy Spirit (Bosch, 1991 as cited by Guder, 1998; Marshall, 2013).
mirrors, angled in such a way that they reflect the image of God. They are to reflect the love and
justice of God into the world (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014). If people believe that the
kingdom is both already and not yet, if they believe that Jesus is setting everything right and will
make everything new one day, then they will point ahead to the beauty of the new creation with art
that reflects the beauty of a glorious Creator. The light of Jesus that shines through them will
expose practices that strip people of value and will reflect God’s love and justice in a world being
set right (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014). They will be angled mirrors reflecting God’s love,
justice, and beauty to the world through their creativity and hope.
God himself is a self-sending God, a missionary God, who does not wait for people to come to him
or for the world to be restored. Instead, God actively goes to the world and to individuals, because
that is who he is by nature. The theological point that mission is an attribute of God is called missio , which means "mission of God" or "sending of God" is rooted in an understanding of
the essential nature of the Trinity that results in the action of mission. God sent himself to the
world through Jesus Christ. God the Father and God the Son sent the Holy Spirit. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit send the church into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit
to carry forth God’s mission of salvation and healing to the broken world (Bosch, 1991, as cited in
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God’s mission is characterized by sending, and its corollary, serving. Jesus explained that he had not
come to bring healing and wholeness to the world through traditional power structures, but to give his
life as a sacrifice. As king and Lord, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to offer his very life
for the salvation of the world. At one point during Jesus’ earthly ministry, the mother of his disciples
James and John came to him and asked for her sons to sit at Jesus' right and left hand in his kingdom.
Operating out of values of the broken world, rather than the wisdom of the kingdom, she lobbied for her
sons to be placed in positions of power. The other disciples were indignant that they were left out of the
power play, but Jesus stepped in and corrected them all. He said:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority
over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your
servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came
not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25-28).
The night before Jesus served by giving his life, he served by washing feet. In first-century Palestine, it
was customary for the host of a meal to provide a servant to wash the feet of the guests. In a pedestrian
society with dirt roads used by both people and animals, feet were often caked with dirt, waste, weeds,
and mud. When guests arrived for a meal, a servant would perform the lowly task of washing feet and
preparing them to dine together. Once again, Jesus turned expectations upside down. When the disciples
gathered in the upper room for the Last Supper, Jesus, instead of a servant, wrapped a towel around his
waist and washed the feet of each disciple, one by one. He took the role of servant, taking dirty feet in
his hands, washing them clean, showing once again that he had not come to be served, but to serve. In
the simple act of washing feet, he foreshadowed the way he would cleanse them from sin by his sacrifice
on the cross. When he finished washing their feet, he told the disciples that just as he had served, they
should serve. The same holds true for Jesus’ followers today: They are called to serve.
Through Jesus’ sacrifice, he made a way for individuals to be saved from sin and death and for the whole
world to be set right. Individuals are justified not only so they can experience personal salvation and
eternal life, but also so they can be sent as God’s agents of healing in the world by serving. Simply put,
people are justified so that they can do justice (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014; Keller, 2010).
Injustice happens when people abuse power. Injustice can happen when people place themselves at the
center of the world. In a world where people focus on themselves first, their own wants, needs, and
values take precedent over the value, worth, and needs of others. In God’s kingdom, in which God is at
the center, the ethics of humility, service, and the inherent worth of people is considered the way to live
wisely.
Injustice can result from lack—lack of humility, lack of love, lack of grace, and lack of mercy. God does not
lack. God’s love is so full it overflows. It spilled over into a beautiful creation. It overflowed by sending
Jesus. It is poured out through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit sent to continue the mission of
Jesus in the world. When God’s people are filled with the overflowing love of God, recognizing that they
are saved by his love and grace, they, too, become overflowing agents of God’s love and do justice (Keller,
2010).
From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus declared that he had come to enact justice by taking good news
to the poor, liberating captives, giving sight to the blind, and setting the oppressed free (Luke 4:18-22).
When crowds of people who were sick, diseased, in pain, and oppressed came to Jesus he healed them
(Matthew 4:23-25). He taught these very crowds of people living under the oppression of injustice that
the Kingdom of God was available to them (Matthew 5:1-12). For people who thought they were outside
the reach of God’s kingdom because they were on the edges of society, this was good news indeed. God’s
kingdom was not distant; it had come near, and they were invited.
Called to continue serving the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the widow,
orphan, and alien, followers of Jesus today are to continue his mission to set the world right and
establish justice. They are called to participate in God’s mission to restore his creation according to the
wisdom of the Creator’s design. They are sent to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16), carrying the
message of Jesus to a hurting world, serving as Jesus served, and proclaiming the good news of the
kingdom.
Laing, 2009; Bosch, 1991, as cited by Guder, 2005). The theology of missio Dei has implications for Christ followers and the church today. “The church exists because God has an ongoing mission to
the world … the church is privileged to serve the purposes of God” (Laing, 2009, p. 92).
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God’s Mission Becomes Humanity's Mission The human heart longs for purpose, meaning, and mission. Long before Mission: Impossible was a movie franchise, it was a television series, first from 1966 to 1973 and again from 1988 to 1990. The idea of
having a mission resonates with people at their deepest level and resurfaces in popular culture again and
again. Many people would secretly love to get that mysterious summons that begins, “Your mission …,
should you choose to accept it” (Geller, 1966-1973).
Although people today normally do not get an invitation for a mission on a self-destructing device, the
offer to partner with God in his mission is real and is for regular people. The night before Jesus died, he
prayed for his current and future followers. As he talked with the Father, he acknowledged the sending
nature of the mission that would flow from him to his followers. He said to the Father, “As you sent me
into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Jesus did not call his followers to be
isolated and elitist; he sent his followers out to the world to share the message that God’s kingdom had
come near. They had a mission to complete. The mission of God continues as his followers do for the
world what Jesus did (Wright, 1994, p. 50). His followers continue to carry forward God’s mission when
they witness to God’s love for individuals and the whole of creation and live out the reality of God’s
healing action of restoring brokenness within people and communities, coming together under the
presence, rule, and influence of God.
God’s call to ordinary people to be his witness in the world is evident throughout the Bible. God called
people to be witnesses to demonstrate wise living by showing others how to know and worship him
(Shenk, 2005). As noted in Chapter 3, God began by calling one family—the family of Abraham (Genesis
12:1-3). This call of one family grew to the call of the whole people of Israel (Exodus 19:3-6). Throughout
biblical history, the people of Israel sometimes got their role as witnesses of God’s goodness right, and
sometimes they failed in this role because they turned away from God and worshiped the idols of their
neighbors or did things their own way rather than God’s wise way. Yet, even during the times when the
people as a whole missed their call, there were still individuals who served God and witnessed to his
goodness and justice. When ancient Israel was suffering the consequence of disobedience to God and
being oppressed by the Canaanites, he raised up Deborah as a judge to lead the people to freedom and
rest (Judges 5-6). When most people had turned from God to worship the Canaanite idols, the prophets
Elijah and Elisha stood firm and witnessed to God’s faithfulness in the midst of a corrupt society (1 Kings
17-2 Kings 13:20). When the people’s unfaithfulness led to them being conquered first by the Assyrians
and then the Babylonians, Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood up to foreign
power and witnessed to God’s saving grace and true power (Daniel 1-6). When Persia overtook the
Babylonian empire, Esther advocated for justice and the lives of people targeted for genocide (Esther 1-
10). When the Persians sent the people of Israel home from captivity, Ezra and Nehemiah were shining
witnesses of God’s heart for holiness and restoration in the midst of brokenness and desolation (Ezra 1-
10, Nehemiah 1-13). The Old Testament is full of stories of people who were God’s witness in the world.
God consistently chose to share his message of healing with the world through ordinary people.
Jesus carried on God’s plan of calling ordinary people to carry God’s message. The Kingdom of God
would be spread by the witness of ordinary people who had chosen to be subjects of the king and live
their lives according to the practical wisdom found in the values of the kingdom. When Jesus met with
his disciples after his resurrection, he called them to be sent as he had been sent. He said, “Peace be with
you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). He sent them and empowered
them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were not sent to proclaim the kingdom out of their own
strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. Although they did not understand at the time, when
Jesus spoke with them the night before he died, Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit would enable them
to be God’s witnesses, giving them truth and authority from Jesus (John 16:13).
A woman named Ann was gripped by God’s gift of grace that had delivered her from an oppressive
addiction. She, in turn, saw other oppressed people through the eyes of God’s grace and knew that
God was calling her to work for justice, freeing people from oppression, both in North America and
She changed her career path and now leads organizations that care for
immigrants and refugees and that work toward fostering peace in areas of conflict around the
God’s grace in her life helped her to see other people through the eyes of grace. Justice
flowing from love and grace is a stark contrast to injustice fueled by lack, hate, and abusive power.
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You have purpose. You have a mission. Sometimes it may seem like you may just be spinning your
wheels waiting for life to happen, but really, you have a purpose and a mission. Your contributions
matter. Think about things that make you, you. What are your strengths? What are you passionate
about? When do you feel fully alive? How have your life experiences shaped you and given you
specific insight? When do you become so engrossed in something that you lose all track of time?
When do you feel God’s pleasure? How might you work wisely to restore God’s original intent of
(Fayed & Puttnam, 1981) told the story of two Olympic Runners in the
1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell was a Scottish runner who was also a missionary to China. While he
knew he had a mission to share the message of God as a preacher, he knew that running was part of
his mission as well. When his sister demeaned his running as less worthy than his missionary work,
he explained to her that both pursuits were callings from God; one calling was not more worthy
than the other. He said, “I believe that God made me for a purpose—for China. But he also made me
fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. To give it up would be to hold him in contempt.” God calls
people to different vocations; a call from God to serve others through designing sound bridges,
reflecting God’s beauty through the arts, or teaching children to read is not less worthy than a call
to be a pastor or missionary. God calls people to serve him and serve the world through many ways
Frederick Buechner, author, pastor, and theologian, said that a good way to find your purpose, to
know what mission God is calling you to, is to discern the work “that you most need to do and that
the world most needs to have done” (2013, para. 4). He explained that if you enjoy your work, but it
is meaningless, then you have probably not found your purpose. Conversely, if you are doing work
that is meaningful for the world but you are miserable doing it you have not found your purpose
either. He sums up the idea by saying, “The place where God calls you to is the place where your
deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (Buechner, 2013, para. 5).
Karen had a meaningful job managing a family practice physician’s office. Every day she helped
people receive the medical care they needed. Her colleagues at the practice found the job fulfilling
and satisfying. She did not. She enjoyed her coworkers and the patients, but there was no deep
gladness in her heart. She did not look forward to going to work. This all changed when she
completed a second degree and changed careers to be a teacher. She suddenly looked forward to
going to work each day. When she saw the lights come on in students’ eyes when they had learned
from her teaching, she knew that she had found her purpose and was fulfilling her mission. Her
deep gladness had met the world’s hunger. How about you? Where is your deep gladness ready to
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After his resurrection, Jesus repeated the call to the disciples. He emphasized that they were called to
be sent to all people in order to help people become disciples, followers of Jesus. As they were shaped by
the mission, they were to carry it forward so that others could know the king who set people free and is
setting the world right. Jesus said to his disciples:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).
The call to go and make disciples was not restricted to the people gathered on a hillside in Galilee that
day. That call is for all people at all times in all places who follow Jesus. The self-sending God continues
to send himself to the world through his people who come together as the church.
Coming together as the church can be one of the biggest hurdles of the twenty-first century, particularly
in Western cultures. While technology has enabled people worldwide to come together more easily than
ever before, individualism, rather than community, is the hallmark of much of society. God’s plan,
demonstrated throughout the New Testament, was that followers would come together in communities
to worship, to pray, to share in the Lord’s table, and to care for one another (Acts 2:42) in order to be
formed into the likeness of Christ and be his ambassadors to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
Becoming a Disciple The invitation to become a disciple of Jesus is an open invitation. God’s work to free people from sin and
bring wholeness to their lives is not just part of a theological story; it is an offer for people to accept
Jesus’ sacrifice as the payment for their sin, and then grow in relationship with Jesus, becoming more
and more like him, adopting his wisdom and living as a citizen of his kingdom. The offer is free. There are
no exclusions—it is open to all. Becoming a follower of Christ is not something that is earned, but an
invitation that is accepted. Jesus offers forgiveness and freedom from sin and brokenness as a free gift
of grace. The gift is accepted by people through faith. Chapter 6 discussed the topic of faith as an
A young lady named Rebecca chose to join a ministry focused on prayer. For several months, she
dedicated herself to prayer and praying for people around the world. After months of prayer, she
felt a call to participate in God’s mission by going to a country where the people live in poverty and
have little freedom. She joined 10 other followers of Christ, and, as a team, they were sent out to
join a community half way around the world. They went to language school, learned to cook and eat
the food of their new country, and made friends with their new neighbors. For part of each day,
they gathered together to pray for ways to share the hope of Jesus with people. After they had
been part of their new neighborhood for a year, the teenagers in the neighborhood began asking
them questions about Jesus. Some chose to become followers of Jesus. This was risky. For Rebecca
and the team, the work they were doing put them at risk of being arrested, imprisoned, or
deported. Local people who came to know Jesus risked arrest, imprisonment, being cut off from
their families and friends, and perhaps even killed for their faith. In spite of the risk, Rebecca and
her team chose to hear the call to spread the healing of God’s kingdom to oppressed people, and
put down roots in their new country in order to be faithful to the call.
Brian was a teacher and a coach in an urban middle school. He recognized that his students lacked
healthy role models and that their families not only lacked resources, but hope. He was not content
with the status quo. Although he already had a master’s degree in education, he earned a second
master’s degree in urban youth ministry so that he would have more tools and resources to
communicate effectively with his students. He gathered adults from his church to hold sports
tournaments with the kids on Saturdays so that the kids would spend time hanging out with
healthy role models. As the kids began to see that these adults liked spending time with them, the
kids began asking them questions about life and family, sex and money, and sometimes about Jesus.
After a few months, the principal of this public school noticed such a dramatic difference in the
demeanor of the students that she invited the people from Brian’s church to be on campus any time
before or after school, at lunch, and during sports practices. As people gathered around the
mission to serve and share the hope of Jesus, the kingdom came and changed that place of despair
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orientation of the human heart that motivates people to act on what they know and affirm. Coming to
faith in Jesus is not something that is done blindly or without thought. Someone is not a Christian
because they live in a particular place, or because their parents are Christians, or even because they go
to church. Becoming a Christian, a follower of Christ, is a decision and an action to change the
orientation of the heart. As people come to know, understand, and believe Jesus’ offer of salvation, they
can decide to accept Jesus’ gift and receive forgiveness for sin, then grow in relationship with him. To
begin a relationship with Jesus, someone simply needs to say he or she accepts Jesus' offer, receive his
forgiveness for sin, and be ready to begin a new relationship with him. Being a follower of Christ is not
about assenting to a list of propositions; it is about a living relationship with the King of the kingdom.
Making a decision to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation is the first step to becoming a fully devoted
follower of Jesus and living in a vibrant relationship with him. After taking that step, one begins the
process of growing to be more and more like Jesus, living more and more wisely, and becoming someone
who reflects Jesus’ love, justice, grace, beauty, and wisdom to the world. This process of growing is often
called spiritual formation or discipleship. The ongoing process of discipleship will be discussed in more
depth in Chapter 12. To start growing in the discipleship process, a follower of Christ begins by orienting
his or her heart and mind toward being a disciple.
In Jesus’ day, when a rabbi invited someone to be his disciple, that person listened and learned from the
rabbi’s teaching, which was known as sitting at the rabbi’s feet. The disciple followed the rabbi
everywhere, and modeled his life after the rabbi’s. Wherever the rabbi went, and whatever the rabbi did,
his disciple went and learned to do. Eventually, the disciple became just like the rabbi. When Jesus gave
his followers the mission of going to spread the good news of the kingdom, he told them to make
disciples and teach those disciples to do everything Jesus had taught them (Matthew 28:19-20). His
instruction did not say to just go and tell people about Jesus, but to help them actually become disciples
so that they would be able to do everything Jesus taught (Willard, 2014). There is a difference between
being a Christian in name, and being a Christian in practice. Following Jesus, learning to do everything he
said, means becoming a disciple.
Being a disciple has been likened to being an apprentice or a student (Willard, 1998) of Jesus. In terms of
the trades, an apprentice commits to being with and learning from someone who has mastered a craft in
order to be able to do become as skilled at the craft as the master craftsman. When people choose to
become apprentices, or disciples, of Jesus, they choose to be with him, “by choice and by grace, learning
from him how to live in the kingdom of God” (Willard, 1998, p. 283). The choice to be a disciple is a
choice that impacts all facets of life because living in the kingdom is a way of living that encompasses all
of who a person is and everything a person does. Being a disciple is not something that is only done on
Sundays at church, but every day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute as an integrated way of life. Becoming
a disciple means to learn to increasingly “live like Jesus lived, love like Jesus loved, to leave behind what
Jesus left behind” (Stetzer & Putman, 2006, p. 76). Being a disciple involves choice, commitment, and
intentionality. Living like Jesus does not generally happen immediately; it usually is a process of growing,
learning, and becoming.
The original Twelve Disciples were often surprised, and sometimes even shocked, by the way Jesus lived
and who Jesus embraced. In Jesus’ culture, eating with someone was a way of forming friendships and
bonds of mutual hospitality. The religious people in the culture were very selective about their guest
lists and would not invite people who were considered unclean or less than worthy to eat with them.
Scandalously, Jesus shared meals with people who were considered the outcasts of society. He
pejoratively became known as one who ate with “tax collector and sinners” (Mark 2:15-17, Luke 15:1).
While the religious folks would not invite these outcasts into their homes for fear that their sin was
means someone who self-identifies as Christian, but is Christian in
name only; the person’s actual beliefs, actions, and orientation of the heart do not flow from a
Sunday Christian reflects this idea as well. Sunday Christians may go to church and say and do one thing at church, but their actions the rest of the week do not
Jesus used a Greek term to describe the religious leaders of his day who were focused more on
their outward religiosity than on how their heart was oriented toward God. The term Jesus used is
still in use today: hypocrite. In Jesus’ day, it was a Greek theater term describing actors who wore
masks to cover their real identity in order to portray a character. They were pretenders. When
Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites in Matthew 23, it was not a compliment about their
acting skills, but an observation that they were only playing a religious part. He challenged them to
drop the charade and orient their hearts toward God. He called them, and still calls people today,
out of play-acting, into dynamic, life-changing, all-encompassing, relationship with him.
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contagious, Jesus turned everything upside down and showed that it was not their sin, but his holiness
that was contagious (Blomberg, 2005). People who ate with Jesus and spent time with him became more
like him. Zacchaeus, a tax collector, shared hospitality with Jesus and changed everything. Tax collectors
were Jews employed by Rome to collect taxes from their fellow Jews. They were considered traitors
because they worked for the enemy. They were also considered cheats. Rome demanded that they
collect a certain amount in taxes from the people. The tax collectors in turn, would collect higher
amounts of money from the people and pocket the difference. They often became wealthy by fleecing the
people this way. When Jesus went to Zacchaeus’ house as a guest, his love, justice, and joy rubbed off.
The man who had collected money for himself turned around and gave it away. He gave freely to the poor
and repaid the people he had defrauded, adding interest voluntarily to what he paid back (Luke 19:1-10).
Being a disciple of Jesus is costly; it requires that people give up being the king of their own kingdom.
This means choosing to do things Jesus’ way, in Jesus’ time, and with Jesus’ priorities. It means choosing
humility over pride, sacrifice over greed, and wisdom over foolishness. It may require taking
uncomfortable risks and living in ways that seem new and strange, but it is also full of joy. As people
grow to become more and more like Jesus, their joy grows because they becoming increasingly free.
They become progressively free from the trappings of sin, from worry, from the need to be right, from
the need to possess, from the need for power, and from habits that can bind people to destructive
patterns. Jesus modeled what a life of freedom could mean.
Jesus was free to serve the least of these because he was not seeking status. Jesus was free to
teach the law of love because he was not bound to the law of sin and death. Jesus was free to
challenge the establishment because he did not seek his own self-preservation but would lay
down his life for his friends (Fitch & Holsclaw, 2013b, p. 35).
Living in the kingdom is a life characterized by freedom. Growing as a disciple is an intentional process
that leads to freedom, joy, love, grace and beauty.
Conclusion God’s Story in human history began with the creation of the world that was full of love, justice, beauty,
and order. The fall happened and the beautiful world became marred with sin. God gave himself to the
world through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to bring redemption and overturn the curse of sin. Jesus
overcame sin and death through his crucifixion and resurrection and now is reaching the world through
The Cost of Discipleship: Dietrich Bonhoe!er In 1945, two weeks before the Allies liberated the Flossenburg Concentration Camp where
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was being held, and three weeks before Hitler committed suicide, the Nazis
hanged Bonhoeffer for his work with the German resistance plots to assassinate Hitler and end the
war (Metaxis, 2010). Bonhoeffer, a theologian and pastor, directed an illegal Church Training
College until it was closed down by the Gestapo. In 1939, American friends got him out of
Germany, but he chose to return saying, “I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of
Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people”
(Leibholz, 1966). During the war, he pastored and worked for the political underground. He called
followers of Christ to focus on Christ and called the church to step away from complicity to the
Long before he was martyred, Bonhoeffer had written about the call to share in Christ’s suffering
and recognize the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. In his book The Cost of Discipleship (1966), Bonhoeffer wrote about the difference between cheap grace and costly grace. Cheap grace is an
intellectual idea of God’s grace that demands nothing of people who follow Christ. Costly grace, on
the other hand, recognizes the price that Jesus paid through his death and that the actual call
Jesus makes to his followers is, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Following Jesus, being a disciple, is not something done
solely by intellectual assent, but by obedience to Jesus. Being a disciple is not something lived out
once a week at church or only when someone feels like being a disciple. Discipleship is the process
of learning to be obedient to Jesus at all times in all situations, heeding Jesus’ call to put aside
one's agenda in order to follow Jesus’ agenda every day. It is the process of dying to self in order to
be filled with the abundant life of Jesus. When Bonhoeffer penned the words, “When Christ calls a
man, he bids him come and die” (1966) he did not know that, in his case, it would mean a physical
martyrdom. Because he had made the decision to follow Jesus day-by-day, no matter the risk and
no matter the cost, he was able to be obedient even when that obedience cost him everything.
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the power of the Holy Spirit, filling the lives of people who share the message of God’s kingdom and the
hope of Jesus with a broken world. Jesus is setting everything right and restoring God’s creation
according to the wisdom of his original design.
Today, Jesus’ followers share his mission to take the kingdom of justice and love to places of darkness
and despair, to transform the values of the broken world by the practical wisdom revealed in God’s
design for his creation. Eventually, Jesus will return and fully restore the world in a new heaven and
earth, and people will have new bodies in the world once again characterized by the love, justice, beauty,
and wisdom of God. Living in the kingdom that is already and not yet, in which people live in between the
past perfection of the creation and the coming perfection of the new heavens and new earth, people
have the opportunity to become disciples, take on God’s mission, and spread hope and healing to the
world.
Chapter Review
Main Ideas The Story, or metanarrative, of God in human history is a continuing Story and people still have a
place in the Story. Since Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Story has turned to the fourth act,
restoration. Jesus has been restoring broken lives, bringing healing and wholeness. His restoration
is not limited to individuals, but also spreads to communities, and will eventually encompass all of
creation.
God’s kingdom is here. To live in the Kingdom of God means to live under the presence, rule, and
influence of God, living with love, justice, grace, wisdom, and beauty in a way that connects people
with Jesus. Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming the reality and availability of God’s kingdom in
the world (Mark 1:15). He declared that God’s presence, rule, and influence were sovereign and
active. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection demonstrate what it means to live within the Kingdom of
God, living where God has his way, and his power, love, and grace are ever-present realities.
Further evidenced through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom refers to God’s presence
and influence reigning over all creation.
God is a missional God, who sends himself to people to provide redemption and restoration. God
sent Jesus to become human and offer his life as a sacrifice for sin. God the Father and God the Son
sent the Holy Spirit to empower followers of Jesus so that they are able to spread God’s love and
healing to a broken world. In this way, God’s mission becomes the mission of his followers.
To become a disciple, someone decides to accept Jesus’ free offer of forgiveness and salvation,
then commits to following Jesus wholeheartedly, learning to become more and more like him.
Not only are people called to the mission of sharing the message of Jesus, but also they are called
to help people learn to do everything Jesus said. When people choose to learn to do everything
Jesus did, they become disciples, or apprentices of Jesus, continually learning, growing, and
changing to become more like Christ.
Key Terms Already and Not Yet: While God’s reign is already in effect over all creation, there is also more to
come. The full effects of God’s kingdom will be seen at the return of Jesus the king, when all is
restored in the new heavens and the new earth, and the work of God is completed. In this sense,
the kingdom is not yet fully realized.
Disciple: In the context of Christianity, a disciple is a person who chooses to follow, learn from, and
take on the character, commitments, and qualities of Jesus.
Kingdom of God: God’s rule and reign over his creation as he dwells with people, redeeming them,
and restoring creation to his wise way of order and design.
Mission of God: God the Father sends the Son, the Father and Son send the Spirit, and the Father,
Son, and Spirit send the church to the world to bring healing and restoration to individuals,
communities, and the world through the gracious rule of God who did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life for others (Matthew 20:28).
Metanarrative: The overarching story and theme of God’s redemptive work in history that is
carried throughout all the stories within the Bible.
Rabbi: A Jewish religious leader and teacher.
Restoration: When people have been freed from sin to new life, Jesus continues to work in their
lives, healing the scars of sin and brokenness, and making them new. They become restored to
wholeness and their lives become marked by grace and love. God is not only restoring individuals,
but all of creation, fixing brokenness in the world. This process will continue until the eventual
restoration of all things, when everything is made new—new heavens, new earth, and new bodies
for people.
Application of Knowledge
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All people are invited to experience redemption and restoration through a relationship with Jesus
Christ.
Individuals and communities of Christ-followers are called to participate in God’s mission to bring
healing and wholeness to a broken world.
Followers of Christ are called to be more than Christian in name only; they are called to be
disciples
Questions for Re!ection 1. What are some of the ways that the Kingdom of God differs from popular misconceptions of the
term? What are some of the defining characteristics of the Kingdom of God? How might you
advance the kingdom by spreading these characteristics in your day-to-day life?
2. How are you loving by serving others? How are you loving by worshipping God? How are you doing
justice? How are you creating beauty?
3. How might you join in God’s mission to bring justice and healing to a broken world? What might
that look like in your own family, neighborhood, or work place? What might it look like for your
church community to do that together?
4. How does your purpose fit within God’s purpose?
5. What might you need to leave behind to be a disciple of Jesus? What might you need to embrace
fully to be a disciple of Jesus?
Resources for Further Reading Willard, D. (1998). The divine conspiracy: Rediscovering our hidden life in God. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.
Wright, N.T. (1994). Following Jesus: Biblical reflections on discipleship. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
References Blomberg, C. L . (2005). Contagious holiness: Jesus’ meals with sinners. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVaristy
Press.
Bonhoeffer, D. (1966). The cost of discipleship. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company.
Buechner, F. (2013). The place God calls you to. Retrieved from http://frederickbuechner.com/content/place-god-calls-you
Fayed, D., & Puttnam, D. (Producers), & Hudson, H. (Director). (1981). Chariots of fire [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom: 20 Century Fox.
Fitch, D. E. & Holsclaw, G. (2013a). “Mission amid empire: Relating Trinity, mission, and political
formation.” Missiology: An International Review 41(4), 389-401. doi: 10.1177/0091829613480626.
Fitch, D. E. & Holsclaw, G. (2013b). Prodigal Christianity: Ten signposts into the missional frontier. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Keller, T. J. (2010). Generous justice: How God’s grace makes us just. New York, NY: Penguin Group.
Geller, B. (Executive Producer). (1966-1973). Mission: Impossible [Television series]. Culver City, CA: Desilu Productions, Paramount Television.
Guder, D. (1998). Missional theology for a missionary church. Journal for Preachers 22(1), 3-11.
Guder, D. (2005). The church as missional community. In M. Husbands and D. J. Treier (Eds.), The Community of the Word (pp. 114-128). Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.Laing, M. T. B. (2009). Missio Dei: Some implications for the Church. Missiology 37(1), 89-99.
Leibholz, G. (1966). Memoir. In D. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company.
Marshall, G. (2013). A missional ecclesiology for the 21 century. Journal of European Baptist Studies 13(2), 5-21.
Metaxas, E. (2010). Bonhoeffer: Pastor, martyr, prophet, spy. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Shenk, W. R. (2005). New wineskins for new wine: Toward a post-Christendom ecclesiology.
International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 29(2),73-79.
Stetzer, E. & Putman, D. (2006). Breaking the missional code: Your church can become a missionary in your community. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Willard, D. (1998). The divine conspiracy: Rediscovering our hidden life in God. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.
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Willard, D. (2014). Living in Christ’s presence: Final words on heaven and the kingdom of God. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.Wright, N.T. (1994). Following Jesus: Biblical reflections on discipleship. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Wright, N. T. (1999). New heavens, new earth: The biblical picture of Christian hope. Cambridge, England: Grove Books Limited.
