Bill Mounce: Discipleship According to Mark
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
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The way of the cross-crucifying your own will in order to live for God’s will-is not a popular one in today’s culture. It requires a reorientation of our lives in order to transform them into holy, kingdom-shaped patterns. Jesus himself was tempted on numerous occasions to forfeit the Father’s vision for reconciling the world to himself, which required the march up to the cross, in exchange for an earthly kingdom attained through coercion and power. This is why the title Messiah, or Christ, was such a charged one. It reflected the mistaken way that God’s people were expecting him to break into history and rescue them. But Jesus’ way of fulfilling his calling as the Messiah not only provided the means by which to reconcile us to God, it also served as a powerful example for how his followers are to live.
Clear as crystal! Thank you Dr. Mounce! Die to self, die to sin, die to the world...but STILL BE IN THE WORLD and carry His Light to others!
Thank you Professor Mounce. You are a skilled educator and I so appreciate your scholarship across the many RUclips programs I have watched. "A little Greek helps." Thank you for helping mend the dis-unity within the Body of Christ brought on by Bibliolatry and Bible Translation bigotry.
Loving these teaching already
GREAT TEACHINGS...
There are numerous litmus strips throughout Scripture, which we can dip into our taking up of the C(c)ross actions for analysis.
My favorite: "My yoke is easy; My burden is light." --Jesus
If our walk and cross carrying is not easy and light, we can know that while we might have begun in the S(s)pirit, we are continuing via flesh, "Christian" self-righteousness.
Paul said he was crucified onto the world and the world was crucified onto him [Gal.6:14b]. If God knows we will not harden our heart and dig in our heels, He will allow the things of the world we attempt to gain, to run out like sand from between the fingers of a closed hand. Conversely, if we allow God to rip from our hearts the love of money [1Tim.6:10] we all have--etc., what's left, purity, will by default cause our new spirit to walk in the Spirit, denying what needs denying, the things of the world--and[/including] self--no longer having luster.
All by Grace, "that no flesh should [self-]glory in His Presence." [1Cor.1:29]
(Do we like to be clothed rather than publicly naked, housed rather than exposed to the elements, fed rather than starving? Money is how we obtain those satisfactions of flesh, hence our love of it.)
"Today, if you hear His Voice, harden not your heart." [Heb.3:7,15,4:7] "Whoever falls on this Stone will be broken....the Kingdom of God...given to a nation bearing the F(f)ruits of it." [Mt.21:44a,43b,d]
[ed.+]
Very good explanation of Mark using parallels in Luke and I will surely use this if and when the occasion arises when talking to people about discipleship. But how do you reconcile the conditional statements and obvious requirements for action with "faith alone" confessions? Jesus makes it quite clear that you cannot be his disciple without taking up your cross, dying to self, and following him. It seems that there is either a conflict with the concept of faith alone, or there is perhaps a misunderstanding of what Jews understood to be entailed in "faith," i.e. not the Western understanding of simple belief / affirmation to the exclusion of all other human action. I suppose one could say that real faith produces action, but that does not seem to be the order Jesus gives here, and is reading something into the passage that simply is not there. If faith entails action, then saying "faith alone" seems either misleading or self-contradictory, given the added qualification on Paul's use, i.e. many say the "alone" is implied where Paul makes these statements, but everybody realizes the phrase "faith alone" does not actually appear in any of those passages. This line of thinking is obviously in line with some "New Perspective" theories on Paul, and it is not exactly popular among evangelicals, but it seems to me one of the better ways to reconcile Paul's statements on Justification by Faith and Jesus's requirements for discipleship.
Chip Kempston I believe you're right on the money there. Too many times I've heard it from people that a "saved" person can sin all they want ("but they won't ever cause their hearts are changed", they say) and be fine.One of the most quoted Scriptures used by Once-Saved-Always-Saved advocates is Ephesians 2:8-9. But verse 10 gives the second part of the statement. _For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them._ People tend to pick and choose verses too much!
I may have missed something in the video but I don't think this passage is about how you're saved. The faith alone is a salvation issue not one about how to walk out your faith. I believe the Mark passage is about how they should live out their salvation daily. Any disciple/christian knows that we have some hard days where we can question why we decided to follow His path. But knowing that we are doing it for a higher purpose and that we have Jesus as the perfect example to follow gets us through.
I think it's pretty clear that Jesus is laying out conditions here. If you're not denying yourself and taking up your cross, you're not a disciple. How can you be saved if you're not a disciple?
Good point!! But there are always moments in our life when we're not correct? I know I can struggle with denying myself and I may go through days if not weeks of intense struggle. I'll go to church and midweeks and fellowship, but that's being religious and not being a disciple. Eventually, I get into some good discipleship with other men and pray and study to get my heart right. This is why we rely on His grace. He knew we would not be perfectly consistent. That's what I was trying to express with my comment. Being a christian/disciple is a roller coaster ride. I'm sure it can be argued that I never stopped being a disciple during my rough times....
Alejandro Aguilar Agreed, none of us are capable of perfect obedience. I guess my point is that if your life is not overall characterized by discipleship, we can't really claim to be saved. We will all go through struggles and different seasons, I was just pointing out that Jesus's call to follow him was one of radical discipleship, not just "believing" in him.