Jesus Christ never made the fact that you were saved equal to discipleship. It is entirely possible to be saved, and yet NOT be a disciple. Now, having said that, I would add that if you are saved, but NOT a disciple, that you are actually out of the will of God. Sure. Do we seriously believe that God ever intended to call people to Christ -- only to then decide that they NOT become disciples? No. While it is possible to be saved, but to not be a disciple, it was always the will of God for all who are saved to become His disciples. This was always the perfect will of God.

The word for disciple in the NT means, "taught one," or, "one who has learned." That is the meaning in the Greek language. But while being a, "taught one," surely including the learning of many facts and doctrines of the Bible, Paul tells us exactly what a disciple is supposed to learn in His epistle to the Ephesians. He says:

Note the key: A disciple is one who has LEARNED CHRIST. To, "make disciples," means to teach people Christ.

You will likewise note that Paul did NOT say, "You must learn ABOUT Christ." No. To learn ABOUT Christ is good, and necessary, and a place to start. If we LEARN CHRIST, as Paul means it, we are certainly going to learn much ABOUT Christ – facts, doctrines, and teachings will necessarily come along. These are essential. Indeed, it is only if we LEARN CHRIST that our facts, doctrines, and teachings can ultimately rightly represent Him in Spirit and Truth. But LEARNING CHRIST is much more than learning facts ABOUT Him. For Christ is not a teaching. He is a Person.

To LEARN CHRIST means to be changed by an inward revelation of Him. It really means to EXPERIENCE Christ. It means that when I begin to see the Truth of Christ that my relationship with God, my perspective, and my motivation for living – indeed, it means that the entire spirit that governs me – is adjusted and altered according to Christ. You cannot LEARN CHRIST and ever be the same again – you cannot GO BACK.

Learning ABOUT Christ does not necessarily bring about this kind of change. You can learn facts and Bible verses, and come to parrot them, and even defend them, but this does not necessarily mean that YOU are changed in your relationship with God. There are plenty of Christians out there that think that because they believe the right doctrines – and we DO need to believe them – but they believe that because they believe the right doctrines, well, they think this indicates they are right with God. It doesn’t. Some of the most arrogant people know sound Biblical doctrine. But there is something wrong between them and God. Usually, they haven’t LEARNED CHRIST.

All through the NT, there is one resounding necessity for those who would go on with God – for those who would be DISCIPLES. It is that we LEARN CHRIST – it is that we EXPERIENCE Christ. In fact, and I don’t think this is in any way an exaggeration, the purpose of the Christian life, once we are saved, is to LEARN CHRIST.

There are scores of Christian people today, including leaders, who object to the fact that to LEARN CHRIST and to KNOW Christ, you must have an inward revelation of Him. To many, talk of an inward revelation will lead us into accepting that which is NOT Biblical. They insist that the written Word of God is His revelation to us. State that you must have an inward revelation of the Person of Christ, and they will say that you are opening the door for EXTRA revelation that is not in the Bible.

This is ironic and tragic. First of all, the very Bible they insist is God’s revelation to us states in no uncertain terms that to know Christ we must have an inward revelation. Furthermore, since the Bible is God’s inspired Word, and the written Truth, you can be sure that any revelation that God brings in an inward way is going to agree completely with the Bible. How could it be otherwise? The Bible is the written Truth and Jesus Christ is the Living Truth. But there is only ONE Truth. Therefore, any revelation of the Living Truth is always going to agree completely with the written Truth – they are expression of the same TRUTH – the ONLY Truth.

And yet how often today do you find churches teaching CHRIST – indeed, how often do you hear it being taught that we need to LEARN CHRIST? In an inward way? This omission is a terrible thing to be sure. Indeed, since the entire purpose of the Christian life is to LEARN CHRIST, and since to learn Christ is what it means to be a disciple, where do we think such an omission and neglect leaves us? Completely out of the will of God, and at best, operating on the fringes of His purposes.

Christianity is not a religion we adopt. It is not merely a list of teachings that we live by. Do we recognize that such a limited notion of Christianity is a one-way ticket to LEGALISM? Now, of course, it is here that people get up in arms and think you are teaching LICENSE. But that accusation betrays a complete misunderstanding of the NEW BIRTH. In fact, it betrays a blindness to what it really means to know the Truth and to LEARN CHRIST.

It is not my purpose here to review the argument between law and grace. But I will say this for the record. If you learn Christ you will live according. You will seek to live a life in Truth – which means obedience and holiness. This is exactly what Paul said in Ephesians – he describes how unbelievers live, (Eph. 4:17-19) and says to the Ephesians, "You have NOT so LEARNED CHRIST!" (Eph. 4:20-21) In other words, IF you have learned Christ, and heard Him and been taught Him, it is going to change you to the point where you won’t live in LICENSE, and you won’t live in LEGALISM, but you WILL live in Christ – you will LIVE IN the Christ you have learned. (Eph. 4:22-32)

As I mentioned, the Christian life is a matter of LEARNING CHRIST, which, is just another way of saying that we must see and know the TRUTH. But if we think that Truth – knowing Christ – is possible without an inward revelation, we need to again read Ephesians 4, not to mention tons of other passages.

Now, before we do that, let’s clarify what I mean by INWARD REVELATION. Well, if there is one thing that this does NOT mean it is this: It does NOT mean that by calling upon something that is within myself, that I can muster up, or discover, the Truth. It does NOT mean that I can visualize, or contemplate, or think my way into the things of God – even if I am born again. No. This is error. But today many are teaching it, either directly, or indirectly. Today false teachers are redefining the Truth of Christ, and making it mean that Christ has merely given you the tools to, "discover the champion in yourself." Or that you are, "destined for greatness." In other words, instead of LEARNING CHRIST, they suggest that you are to LEARN or DISCOVER yourself – self-realization has become Christianity. They teach that man actually has a latent greatness, and that the Holy Spirit is given to bring that out. This is a lie. Any anyone who teaches it is a heretic. It is Gnosticism, and of Satan.

This is clear: Christianity is NOT self-realization. It is Christ realization. Neither are Christians destined for greatness. No, we are destined to experience HIS greatness. Now, if that isn’t enough for you, you are deceived, and blind. If you want to spend eternity realizing yourself, and walking around flaunting your greatness – even if you think that Christ has made you great – then I’m sure that God can find a place for you. But it will be a sorry place. The fact is, all of these ridiculous ideas of God’s purpose for His people are wiped away if we would only LEARN CHRIST. If you learn Him, and experience Him, you won’t be fussing around with yourself.

The true revelation of Jesus Christ – the inward revelation – is not found in myself at all. It comes from the OUTSIDE of me into me. Sure. What do we think it means to be, "born again FROM above?" It means to receive a life (a Person) that is NOT of this world – it means to receive Jesus Christ from the outside of me INTO me, that is, into my spirit. That is why births me anew, and results in a new creation IN Christ Jesus.

So if you understand this, you will see that there is nothing in us through natural birth that can be mustered up to produce eternal life, nor is there, through natural birth, any Truth or light in me. No. Jesus Christ is the LIFE and the LIGHT.

Notice the contrast Paul gives in Ephesians between unbelievers and those born again:

From the above passage from chapter 4 we see the condition of all who are born IN ADAM. There is NO life and NO Truth in one born in Adam. And there is no way to get it through natural means. The only solution, therefore, is to receive it FROM ABOVE – from the outside of us into us. This is accomplished through the new birth, whereby Christ makes us one with Him in our spirit. THEN we have in us the Person who carries all light and all Truth.

If we are born again, we got that way by being brought to repentance and then by embracing God’s gift in Christ. Christ is then IN US. But can we see that this new birth is exactly that – merely a BEGINNING? Once Christ is in us we have EVERYTHING God intends us to have – we have all life and Truth in us because He is all life and light, and He is in us. But again – this is a beginning. What is next? We have to LEARN CHRIST. Despite the fact that everything God intends us to have is given to us in Christ, it is only unfolded to us, and experienced by us, as we learn Christ. God has wrapped up everything He has for us IN HIS SON.

It is therefore conclusive, and the great Truth of the NT: We are complete in Christ. If Christ is in us, we LACK nothing. If Christ is not in us we HAVE nothing. But if Christ is in us, we must still go on to LEARN CHRIST. And if we do, we will be changed in everyway. For we will be KNOWING the Truth which sets us free.

Jesus said, "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free." (John 8:32) He also said, "I am the Truth." Thus, Truth is not a THING. It is a Person. But if you know the Person, there will be eternal light cast upon all THINGS. You will see THINGS according to the Truth. None of this is possible unless we know Christ; learn Christ.

In the Bible, the term, "know," or, "knowledge," is somewhat other than our English meaning. When we think of knowing something, we usually limit this to knowing the facts. But in the Bible, knowing, as in, "knowing Christ," means much more. It really means to REALIZE or experience. So while, by necessity, this would INCLUDE intellectually knowing and understanding, the intellectual knowing would have behind it an inward revelation. In other words, to KNOW THE TRUTH means to experience the Truth – which would certainly set in order my intellectual understanding of the Truth. It would certainly impact and include that. But make no question, it is nevertheless possible to grasp the Truth only on an natural level, but for there to be no real spiritual revelation behind it. In that case, I may have learned many facts about Christ, but perhaps I have not learned Christ Himself at all!

You will notice that Jesus said that knowing the Truth would set us free. Or, to say it another way, LEARNING JESUS – who IS the Truth – will set us free. So right there, if we see nothing else, we see that knowing the Truth has IMPACT. Learning Christ sets us free. What is this freedom; this impact?

Well, to know the Truth – to learn Christ – if it does nothing else, will MAKE ME TRUE. Learning Christ will MAKE ME TRUE UNTO GOD.

If there is one thing that characterizes natural man, it is that natural man is NOT TRUE. Natural man is a LIE – by nature he is a lie. He is a, "lying version," of what God originally intended for man to be. Sure. How could he be anything else? We have already seen that through natural birth, man has NO TRUTH IN HIM. So everything else is going to be governed by this terrible darkness. Man’s entire

understanding – especially of God – is utterly darkened. You will notice that this does not mean he is on NEUTRAL ground. It means he is in bondage to the realm of darkness, and has no way out except through the Light Himself, Jesus Christ.

Now, when you have a being that has no Truth in him, but who is also in bondage to darkness, then you have a being that is going to be a product of that terrible condition. Thus, everything about natural man – his personality, his thinking, his motives – the whole person, is going to be a lie. It is going to be FAKE. Sure. If you have no Truth in you – if you have NO light – then you are going to turn out as the product of darkness. It is the only possible outcome.

God once said to me, "Nothing you believe about yourself is the Truth." He was referring to my natural self, not to who I am in Christ. I did not grasp that at first. But now I see it. Everything we are as a natural human being – before we receive Christ, and the residual effects remain – everything we are as a natural human being is built out of the materials found in natural man. And those materials have NO TRUTH. They are of the race of Adam. They are comprised mostly of SELF materials, even if we don’t realize it. In short, natural man can build only a FAKE SELF. That is all he has to work with.

We see this with Adam right after his sin. When he walked away from God, he saw that he was naked. But now, because God was gone, Adam was ashamed – he was tormented by his condition. From that point forward he tried to COVER his true condition of nakedness with a man made device, in his case, fig leaves. Can we see what this is teaching us? It is teaching us that a fundamental characteristic of fallen man is that he will build a FAKE SELF in order to cover his real condition of nakedness. Or, to put it another way, without the Truth Himself in you, the only alternative is darkness, and lies. And we are here talking, not merely about what a person does, or believes. We are talking about what they ARE. If you are not true to God, you will be a lie to Him – because you will be a lie, period.

Here we also see why, in order to MAKE US TRUE UNTO GOD, the first approach of God must be to expose the LIE that we are to Him. The Holy Spirit MUST convict us and do a work in us to break the back of this fake self. Indeed, if Christ is in us, some of this has already been done, or we would not have repented or embraced Him. Yet once Christ is in us this work continues on deeper and deeper levels. How could it not continue? If Christ is in you, then LIGHT is in you, and if LIGHT is in you, then He is going to expose the truth about you! He is also going to bring the Truth about God.

It is amazing that some people think that they can learn the Truth about Christ but not have that same Truth expose to them the Truth about themselves. Do we think we can pick and choose which LIGHT we desire? No. Light is Light, and either we want the Truth or we don’t.

The fact is, if I am LEARNING CHRIST, then I am going to learn the Truth about everything in relation to Him. This will mean that I will have to UNLEARN much. If I am LEARNING CHRIST, then I am going to have to have my FAKE SELF exposed and dismantled. Indeed, if I am learning Christ, I am going to WANT this to happen. For I will see that learning Christ will set me free from my fake self so that I can walk with God.

Thus, if I KNOW THE TRUTH, the impact will be that it will MAKE ME TRUE. But this will be because I have LEARNED CHRIST. This isn’t about self-improvement. It is about knowing HIM, and the impact that this will have upon me.

And yet there is more. Once I am MADE TRUE TO GOD, then can we see that we can walk in THE TRUE RELATIONSHIP that God has for us? You cannot walk with God in Spirit and in Truth unless you are in the process of being MADE TRUE. A lie cannot walk with Truth. You must be MADE TRUE UNTO GOD to walk with God, because God is the Truth.

THE true relationship is God’s will for each of us. All of God’s purposes fall under that – including the fact that we are to be conformed to His image. Sure. Being made true is necessary to be conformed to the image of the One who said, "I am the Truth." Not that we will be THE Truth. No. But because we are one with Him, and He is the Truth, we will be MADE TRUE, and be in the TRUE relationship. The result for us is freedom from all that is outside of the Truth.

Christianity is not a religion comprised of teaching about Jesus. A Christian is not a follower of those teachings, or merely a follower of Jesus. No. Rather, Christianity is CHRIST IN US – accomplished by the new birth. And a Christian is one in whom Christ dwells. All of the following, obeying, and Christian living ought to emerge from HIM. Thus, as we have seen, this then means that the Christian life is a matter of LEARNING CHRIST, or to use the term for that, once we are saved, we are to become DISCIPLES.

It would seem that one of the most difficult things to get across to Christian people is that you can only come to know Christ by revelation. This revelation will, as already stated, always be in precise agreement with scripture. But scripture itself tells us over and over again that Christ is know through revelation:

How do we receive the revelation of Jesus? – how do we LEARN CHRIST? Well, God has sent His Spirit to TEACH US CHRIST. But not only information about Christ – but REVELATION OF CHRIST. This means that only God can orchestrate the classroom in which we are to learn Christ. We don’t have the materials to work with. So how does God do that?

We are going to see that the general Truth of how we learn Christ is by entering into fellowship with Him in His death and resurrection. This is real discipleship. Christ has died FOR us, but now we must be crucified WITH Christ. Christ was raised FOR us, but now we must be raised WITH Him. I speak not of what we need to be saved. I speak of what we need to learn Christ. Or, to put it another way, we MET Christ when we were saved. Now we must learn to know the Person we met. We were saved in a moment, but now we will spend eternity learning what it all means.

Now, all of that is background that is necessary to see if we are to understand DISCIPLESHIP. A disciple is NOT someone who has been appointed to an OFFICE that bears that name. No. A disciple is one who is at least in the process of LEARNING CHRIST – and all that we have seen this means. You become a disciple as you learn Jesus. You become one in no other way – it is THE definition of the term.

In light of this, let’s see what the Bible says about being a disciple:

A couple of clarifications are in order before we proceed. First of all, Jesus obviously does not intend for disciples to actually HATE their parents. This would be in direct disobedience to the commandment which tells us to honor them. The meaning is that if we have to choose between God and our parents, well, then we choose God. You will notice that a person is to hate, "his own life also." But Bible teaches that, "no man ever hated his own flesh." So obviously, Jesus is here saying that if our human loves and relationships – even with ourselves -- would keep us from true discipleship, then we should hate it, in the sense of rejecting it. Or, to put it another way, we are to LEARN CHRIST first, and if we do, then everything else will be set in its proper place. And clearly, that will mean that we will love with an edifying love, rather than a destructive one that omits the purposes of God.

This is clearly explained in the final phrase of the passage that is translated, "Whosoever that forsakes not all that he has cannot be my disciple." Some people have made this to mean that we have to give everything away, or go live as a monk, or live a life of aestheticism. This is not the Truth. The word, "forsake," in this verse means, "to set in proper order." So in other words, everything we own, indeed, everything we are, is to be UNDER JESUS as Lord. Since a disciple is one who as LEARNED CHRIST, then everything which that disciples owns must be impacted and governed by the Truth of Christ. You FORSAKE all in the sense that you become detached from it – it no longer owns you – and you are free to make it subject to the learning of Christ. Or, to sum it up from another verse, "Seek you first His kingdom," and if you do, then everything else will be governed by His kingdom – including God’s provision for you.

So a disciple, because he has learned Christ, is one who is impacted and changed by that knowledge of Christ to where it governs all. In short, if you learn Christ, you cannot go back. You are accountable, and everything you are is going to be brought out into the light, and as stated earlier – everything, including you, is going to be MADE TRUE unto God – made right unto Him. This is good news, and not bad news.

In the above passage, Jesus clearly states that that unless we carry our Cross, we cannot be disciples. Or, in other words, unless we identify with Christ in His death, we cannot learn Christ. When is the last time you heard this Truth taught? You rarely hear it. In fact, I don’t think most Christians would face it. Jesus said something similar in Matthew 16:

If we want to learn Christ – be His disciples – we have already seen that this requires that we learn more than just facts about Christ. Anyone can learn the facts about what Jesus did for us – died on the Cross and was raised from the dead. That is good. But to truly LEARN CHRIST you have to become one with Him in His death and resurrection, and you have to begin to fellowship with Him in those realities. Think not? Well, Jesus is saying so. He said, "And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." He said, "IF any man will come after Me…whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Notice how different this is than if He had said, "Whoever would come after Me must believe that I carried MY Cross, and I lost MY life." No. You must go on to carry YOUR Cross for His sake, and LOSE YOUR LIFE for His sake. That is fellowship with Him in death and resurrection, and it is the only way to LEARN CHRIST.

The NT pounds this point home again and again:

A disciple is one who is experiencing Christ – which is really the only possible outcome of knowing the Truth. God wants us to experience HIMSELF – and if we do, this will impact every part of us.

Again – all of these passages speak of experiencing what Christ has done. They are, of course, based on the finished work of what Christ has done FOR US. But rather than merely speak, for instance, of the fact that Christ died FOR us, we are being told that we must be crucified WITH Christ. We must be raised WITH Him. This is how we LEARN CHRIST. We enter into a fellowship and experience with Him in His death and resurrection – but not one that saves us all over again. No. But it teaches the One who saved us once and for all. This fellowship teaches us Christ, and imparts into us the Truth land the power that will set us free.

What is a disciple? A disciple is one who is learning Christ. But not just facts about Christ. Not just teaching about what He did. Rather, a disciple is one who is experiencing Christ and experiencing what He did. That is not only learning Christ, but it is knowing the Truth that sets us free.