Shawn T. Hunt Submission to_Christ.pdf

Christ. This is the point of everyone’s life where we are dead to our sins and have yet to ask

Christ to be our savior. People stay in this stage for many reasons; pride, stubbornness, and lack

of a Christ like example are a few of the many. Some people also have misguided perceptions

that just because they go to a church a few times a year and that they are a “good person” that

they are destined for heaven. It takes a triggering moment for someone to move out of the

spiritually dead stage. It could be a low point in life where one knows that without God they

won’t make it or it could be someone watching the example of a disciple of Christ that makes a

person think about what is missing in their life. Essential to helping the dead find life is the

into the infant stage. This is the stage where you can find brand new people of faith and also

people that have never grown spiritually after conversion. No matter the reason for someone to

be in the infant stage it is clear that they are still living for themselves and not Christ. There is a

deep need for a mature disciple to guide them. This guidance is in the form helping them

understanding the “why” of the myriad of questions they will ask; why should we pray, why is

tithing important, why is Christ called the Son of God are just a few questions that can arise.

Also people at this stage will need overwhelming love from the disciples around them; this love

will help keep their feet on the path to Christ. Helping someone in this stage understand the

still living for themselves instead of Christ. But they have moved past trying to understand the

basics of the Christian faith. Though they have not progressed far enough to understand the true

meat of the Scriptures, they do have a fundamental understanding. “People in this stage are

continuing to grow in their relationship with God, and they are beginning to grow in their

relationships with other Christians as well.”3 This growth is characterized by the spiritual child

having learned enough of to navigate through the church by themselves. They have a limited

understanding of Scripture and how they should live their lives, but they are still in need for the

guidance of a mature disciple and a strong fellowship base. Once the spiritual child has learned

to obediently trust God they will inevitably begin to live for Christ and replace their old self with

a servant’s heart.

the work given by Christ and they are ready to take it on the task. As with all the previous stages

3 Ibid, 65.

the young adult still needs the love and guidance of a mature disciple. The greatest attribute a

mature disciple can demonstrate is patience for understanding for those in the church. The

mature disciple has to ensure the young adult does not get carried away with their passion and

enthusiasm.

when a follower of Christ moves from being a mere disciple of Christ to being a disciple maker

for Christ. This is the epitome of being a disciple of Christ, this is the stage where the disciple

has completely sold out for Christ and is living for Him at all times. The spiritual parent is

critical to the growth of new disciples and can be the difference between someone finding Christ

or someone walking away. For the spiritual parent making disciples is their purpose, but they are

also concerned with making disciples that will grow. Spiritual parents want to help people come

to know and believe in Christ, but they also want to help those people grow in faith and move out

of stage two and three.

This sphere is the base line for being a disciple of Christ, without this one really cannot say they

4 Ibid, 85.

sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another Iron sharpens iron." (Prov 27:17) Just as this verse

reading Scripture to be a follower of Christ. As with anything in life there has to be a balance of

different aspects to make a person strong, to be strong in one's faith fellowship has to happen.

Christ told us, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there among

them." (Mat 18:20) Christ wants to have a relationship with us, but he also wants us to have a

relationship with others. He knows; because He was here in mortal form and lived as we live;

that without the relationship with other followers we will not be strong enough to make it

through the trials of this life. This is evident today as it was when the early church came to

existence from broken people in a broken world.

last sphere dealt with fellowship between believers. Here we are talking about a believer’s

interaction with people, their families away from church. Being a disciple of Christ doesn’t start

and end at church on Sunday, it is how you live your life every second of everyday. Because

these are the people they see and talk to almost every day, the home is a disciple’s first mission

field. This is where the changes a believer has made to become a follower of Christ should be

most evident.

away from the church and in secular society. Because of our relationship with God, believers are

relationship with God believers cannot seclude themselves from the world. They have to be in

the world for everyone to see what God has done in their life.

world than what I have so far in my life. I say this not because I still live for the flesh; I know for

a fact that I have died and been reborn; the man I am now is not who I was just one year ago.

Though I gave myself to Christ ten years ago, I did not truly give one hundred percent to Him. I

say that I have to submit more to Christ through my relationship with the world for one reason. I

have not used my position in the world, the connections with the secular world to further the

Kingdom of the Lord. I got a wakeup call; a good old slap in the face when I read, “Do you

present the gospel strictly as a lightening of burdens, a removal of cares. Is discipleship cheap?

Jesus' language here, of suffering and cross-bearing, is anything but cheap. Is this how serious

you are about your Christian walk?” 5 After reading that last sentence I automatically knew the

answer; no. I am serious with my relationship with God; I study the Word, I pray and I follow

5 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4, (Minneapolis, MN: First Fortress Press,

Christ’s commandments as best as a sinner can. I am serious with my relationship with my

brothers and sisters in Christ; I lean on people when I need help, I am the rock for others to lean

on, I have a core group of brothers that I talk to in some form every day. And I am serious about

my relationship with my family; I pray with my two sons every night, and I ensure my family

should have by now. I can say that I covertly try to spread the Gospel, but I am not overt about it.

eternal life. Christ. Christ tells him to keep all the commandments and the young man tells Him

that he has all his life. Christ then tells the young man to sell all he owns, give it to the poor and

follow Him. Of course the young man walked away dejected; he wanted eternal life, but he also

wanted to be comfortable in this life. But as Charles Talbert states, “He fails to attain his goal

because the cost of discipleship is too great. In both cases the demand functions to determine

whether or not the individual is a worthy candidate for discipleship.”6 Submission to Christ was a

new concept during New Testament times and took time for people to truly understand its

meaning, “The writings of others were valued, but the early Christians saw uniqueness in the

witness of those who stood in immediate relation to Jesus.”7 Who among us today can say yes to

this commandment? This is unheard of in today’s society and I do not even know if it is possible

to survive if you did follow Christ like He told the young man.

7 Frank Stagg, New Testament Theology. (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1962), 7.

trying to get ahead of someone, trying to get more and hold on to it. “This is why I tell you:

Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what

you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the

you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And

or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of

these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the

furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying,

‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the idolaters eagerly

seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the

kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” (Matt

6:25-33) We are told not to worry about what tomorrow brings, not to worry about what we will

wear or eat. But it is the very nature of man to worry; even those of us that have placed ourselves

in the hands of Christ worry about one thing or another. So no matter what we will fail in this

context every time; we are all the young man asking how to obtain eternal life. But I believe that

to truly submit to Christ is to place one hundred percent of our faith on Him. Placing Christ

before all things is what submission looks like; it doesn’t mean that we will not have the worries

and fears of life, but we will know that as bad as something gets He has us in His hands. This

complete faith and surrender will in turn build obedience. Obedience will help us grow deeper in

faith and in turn allow us to submit to a greater extent.