Normalize Conformity to the Image of Jesus as the Goal of Disciple Making

This article is the fourth installment in a series of six, regarding what is often unspoken advice to follow while teaching that being a disciple of Jesus is mandatory in the local church:

However, the third and most recent post raises the question, Why is it so important to be and make disciples of King Jesus?

Sometime after discovering that we were supposed to be and make disciples of Jesus, I asked myself this same, important question. After several years of studying the question in both seminary and on my own, I was prompted to write a book, in response, with the help of Discipleship.org. (Recreated to Be like God: Making Disciples in the Image of Jesus). Click here for the free, short primer version or, if you prefer an audiobook , there is even a free audiobook version of the full book – click here to download.

Here is a short summary of the book:

We must be and make disciples of King Jesus. It is through the disciple making process that human beings are re-created back into the image of God – which is what we were originally created to be. Moreover, it is through being recreated into the image of God, that we both manifest God’s glory unto creation and render back to God the glory that He is due. That is our original purpose for existing.

I didn’t come up with that position. That is the teachings of Scripture, the Church Fathers, the Reformers, and great modern theologians such as C.S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (among others). That is a summary teaching given in both Reformed and Arminian theologies. The answer has been right there staring us in the face the whole time. Perhaps we’ve just been too busy or distracted to see it.

In the book Recreated, this teaching is summarized in four principles:

The Image of God as the Basis of Discipleship. The ultimate goal of the gospel of Jesus (and therefore Christian discipleship) is that believers bring glory to God by being recreated into the image of God that they were originally created to be.

The Purpose of Imitating and Obeying Jesus as His Disciple. The goal of believers being recreated into the image of God is accomplished by their imitating and obeying Jesus, (who is the perfect image of God), as His disciples, through the supernatural empowerment and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus-Style Disciple Making. Imitating and obeying Jesus as His disciple begins (but does not end) with specifically learning and then keeping the words, teachings, commands, and examples He gave during His earthly ministry. Someone cannot imitate and obey someone without explicity knowing what they said and did.

Biblical Discipleship in a Relational Environment. Being conformed to the image of Jesus by imitating and obeying Him as His disciple is not a passive process but an active and interactive process that occurs within a relational environment. Jesus established and demonstrated such a relational environment during His earthly ministry.

There are other disciples that are mentioned in the New Testament besides disciples of Jesus. There are disciples of Moses, disciples of the Pharisees, and disciples of John the Baptist. The point is, that most churches are probably already making disciples of something and someone. It may be disciples of a certain denomination or tradition, disciples of a pastor or a certain style of worship, or disciples of a certain theology. What might be even more confusing is that they could even be making disciples of one of those things, while calling it making disciples of Jesus.

Focus on the re-creation of people into the image of God through being disciples of the perfect image of God, King Jesus. Doing so forces us to make disciples who imitate and obey Jesus. This is because the ultimate measure of whether we are making disciples of Jesus should be that the people we are discipling act increasingly like Jesus. Likewise, when people understand that it is through imitating and obeying Jesus as His disciples that they fulfill their original purpose as the image of God, that is when they will understand why discipleship is mandatory.

Now, before we close, we want to take some time to address one of the most common arguments against the premise that it is through imitating King Jesus as His disciples that we are conformed into His image.

“Isn’t it the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to conform us into the image of Jesus?”

The verse most often cited to support this thought is: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). Unfortunately, as with many Bible passages, we tend to focus on one part of the verse without considering the entire verse. We like to emphasize the first and last part of the verse: “It is God who works in you. . . in order to fulfill his good purpose,” while skipping the middle part: “to will and to act.” The Holy Spirit changes us by supernaturally empowering and enlightening us “to will and to act.”

Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington help us to see this point holistically. Bobby puts it this way:

In reality there are three parts in disciple making: my part (the disciple maker), God’s part (by his Spirit), and the disciple’s part (the person who is willing to be discipled). Scripture teaches us that as God works in our lives, he uses people to disciple us and he uses our choices. The work of the Spirit is to mold us, so that we “will” and we “act” in step with his purposes.

And furthermore, when we ask “for what purpose does the Holy Spirit empower and enlighten us to will and to act”? The obvious answer is the Holy Spirt empowers and enlightens us to imitate and obey Jesus as His disciples. Paul also wrote:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

What does it mean to “contemplate the Lord’s glory”? It would seem strange to say that anyone who sits around and thinks about God’s glory will be conformed to His image.

An exegetical tip is to look beyond the artificial chapter and verse breaks in modern Bibles. Those breaks weren’t there originally and can occasionally interrupt complete thoughts. If we continue reading 2 Corinthians 4, Paul continued the thought he began in the third chapter and further explained what it means to “contemplate the Lord’s glory:”

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3–6)

Notice that the gospel specifically displays “the glory of Christ” as “the image of God.”

I have heard a statement multiple times from the pulpit of well-meaning evangelical churches in reference to the Holy Spirit’s empowering Christians: “It’s a mystery. He changes you from the inside out.” Again, that statement is well-meaning but incredibly vague and, in my opinion, unhelpful. Will the Holy Spirit really transform me into the image of Jesus no matter what I do? Most of us don’t truly believe that, but we say it because we don’t know what else to say.

Jesus, however, taught concerning the empowerment and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit:

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)

Jesus clearly taught that one of the main purposes of the Holy Spirit is to empower and enlighten believers to be able to remember the words, teachings, and commands He gave, and then to be able to keep them.

If you choose to follow my advice and teach being re-created into the image of God through imitating and obeying Jesus as His disciple, Ephesians 4 will be very helpful. In many ways it is the central passage and crescendo of Ephesians:

…you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:21-24)

Ephesians 4:11 and 5:1-2 are important verses that make this point as well.

And always remember, what you celebrate, people will replicate. If you preach on, normalize, and celebrate people being conformed to the image of Jesus, that is what your people will want to replicate.

For King Jesus,

Curt Erskine for Discipleship.org