Jessica Walter, Communication and Leadership Resources Manager
Over the last few years I’ve asked and been asked the following question: What comes after “being saved”?
I grew up with a theology that centered almost completely around the salvation experience. Over and over again I was told that what really mattered was whether or not I had committed my life to the Lord, so much so that I often questioned my own salvation. Long after I had made the choice to follow Christ and “accept him as my Lord and Savior” I would continually feel drawn to respond to altar calls. Eventually a voice inside me said, “Enough already, when will you ever feel completely perfect in your faith? The answer is never and responding to every altar call won’t change that.”
In that moment I realized I was missing an element of Christianity and I started to look for it. Soon I began to better understand faith as a journey and salvation not as the destination but rather a part of the beginning.
I discovered that discipleship comes after salvation and began looking at Christ’s relationships with his disciples with more probing eyes. This helped me see how Christ meets us where we are and then nudges, sometimes shoves, us forward. Suddenly I encountered discipleship in a more meaningful way.
In Chris Nickel’s reflection on Harold S. Bender’s The Anabaptist Vision he notes Bender’s explanation of the early Anabaptists’ understanding of discipleship as “a concept which meant the transformation of the entire way of life of the individual believer and of society so that it should be fashioned after the teachings and example of Christ.”
Our theological ancestors understood that when you welcomed the transforming power of Christ’s salvation into your life that it was the beginning of a commitment to walk the journey, to “fashion” your life after Christ.
In Matthew 25: 31-46 Jesus tells us how the Son of Man will come and separate the people of all nations to his left and right; judging them by whether they gave the hungry food, the thirsty a drink, welcomed the stranger, clothed the needy, looked after the sick and visited those in prison. “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me.’ (verse 40)”
In these verses Christ outlines some of the expectations he has for his disciples. Bender later notes that the early Anabaptists’ also understood discipleship as the “outward expression of the inner experience.” The following pages of Intersections are filled with the stories of fellow disciples who are expressing their salvation and fulfilling the Matthew 25 expectations.
A congregation is providing financial “water” those who are experiencing the current economic “drought” through raising support for families who have recently lost their livelihoods.
Behind prison walls, inspired disciples are defying past barriers centered around fear to visit those in prison. They are finding a people hungry for a different way of life.
Immigrant disciples who share the bond of being strangers in a new land are providing each other with hospitality. Worshiping and fellowshiping together despite the distance between them.
Those who have heard the cry of the hungry, starved by intestinal worms, are working together to combat the parasite, hoping someday to rid the world of it’s existence.
Men and women are standing up for the children in their neighborhoods, speaking and acting against gun violence so that their neighbors have a chance to life long and full lives.
A dedicated disciple reflects on her years of leadership at Franconia Conference. She has seen its members through many changes and has empowered and provided space for many other disciples along the way.
These are a few examples of the many ways we live, transformed by our faith, as disciples. What are the Matthew 25 stories that surround and inspire you? How is your life being fashioned after the teachings and example of Christ?