Gospel-Centered Discipleship (VII)

Chapter 7: Practical Discipleship: Putting The Gospel Into Practice

I have to say that I definitely have not been putting my effort into my faith lately, with this dry spell, things are only more difficult. I finally decided to put up the book again and carry on through the final chapters in the book, and each time I do this, I am always overwhelmed by how God is shouting at me, as it reminds me of what I should be doing. The real issue is if I really put it into practice or not.

Jonathan uses this chapter to talk about how fight clubs actually work, what they are and how they should be executed. Each and every day we are at spiritual war, facing temptations, tuning out lies and fighting the flesh. With the world around us, we "are tempted daily to believe the empty promises of the millionaire, movie-god, and rock-star lifestyles. we are tempted to believe that if we had a little more money, power, notoriety, respect, beauty, influence of success we would be truly happy." With these lies whispering in our ears every waking moment, i've really started to realize how difficult this path is, walking with Christ, and most importantly what the real cost of discipleship really is.

"Our spiritual war is a war against the flesh, that lingering vestige of our pre-Christian lives that must be put to death so that we can live in the fullness of life given to us in Jesus."

The flesh is beaten by the power of the Spirit. The purpose and goal of these fight clubs is to promote God-honoring discipleship, Dodson's motto for it is "know your sin, fight your sin, trust your savior".

Know Your Sin
This means that you take time to reflect and recognize what sins are in your life, what sins you need to be convicting of, what sins you have to confess and admit to. "Use God's word as a mirror to expose sin and as a sword to convict." Think about when they most likely occur, and ultimately why. The lies behind the sin, the false promises Satan tries to dangle before you. "What are you desiring or valuing most when you sin in a particular area? What is your heart longing for? Cultivate a habit of looking beneath your sin to expose to lie underneath it."

Fight Your Sin
Before you even tackle your sin, be sure to engrave in your mind that Christ has already won for us, that we have victory over sin already. Fighting your sin "means a habitual weakening of the flesh through constant fighting and contending in the Spirit for sweet victory over sin. It should be regular and progressive, not occasional and instant. Fighting is not an end in itself or a way to make us more presentable to God. We fight because we have been made presentable in Christ." We are to put our sins and our old self to death, for then we are alive to God (Romans 6:11, Romans 8:13, Colossians 3:5-6, Hebrews 3:12-13). I know I have always found fighting sin difficult, after much thought I think it is because, as Dodson states that we value Jesus' atonement for our guilt, but in our hearts we don't understand how we have been freed from sin's grasp. Or the question of why fight if we are already accepted. But the truth is we fight from our new identity, "God does not accept us as we are. He accepts us as we are in Christ."

"Fight club is ultimately about life, not death-about joy, not sorry. It is about the gospel, not good works. We don't fight for acceptance; we fight from our acceptance. We don't contend against sin to forge an identity but because we have received a new identity in Christ. Perfection is not the goal; persevering faith is."

Trust Your Savior
Trust in his promises, and not in your own efforts. Don't think that you can climb to the top of the spiritual ladder, but instead "Jesus actually climbed down the spiritual ladder for you, died for your failure to perform morally, rose again, placed you on his back, and then climbed back up the spiritual ladder, where he placed you right in the presence of a holy God, fully loved and fully accepted." We trust our Savior by trusting his word, and holding onto his everlasting promises; depending on him, having constant communion with Him.

Something I needed to hear was how to cultivate fresh faith in the gospel, and this chapter addresses that directly. There are three things we should be praying for. a) insight into his promises, b) experience of our need, and c) creation of desire. Ask for insight, pray for an experience to help realize how much we need God. and long for desire to respond to Christ.

One may be asking how exactly does a fight club work? Dodson sheds light on four simple things a fight club is. Simple - two to three people gathering to encourage one another with the gospel, Reproducible - if group expands, newcomers leave and start their own discipleship group as they get the gist of how it works, Missional - practicing the sharing of Good news with other people who may not have found Christ yet, and Biblical - always having a foundation on the living Word of God.

Text-Theology-Life is another model Dodson uses to help understand the gospel, reading the text together, meditating on insight, asking for conviction and learning more about God's attributes, seeking the gospel in the passage, and sharing how it relates to your lives. The goal is the be Christ-centered, not application centred, to delight in the Lord.

verse of the day: Romans 6:6-11

⁶ We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.