Discipleship
510 words long.
Published on 2025-10-17
What is everything you need to know to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? How do you order all that information and present it in a logical fashion? What is the series of growth milestones that you must pass to proceed to full maturity in the faith? I do not know! Even so, I intend to take a stab at it.
It is Fall 2025 and I am currently engaged in writing a series of three books on Christian discipleship. From time to time, I will add articles to this section on topics related to that project. The three books will divide the subject into these topics:
- Speaking with God
- Salvation
- Sanctification
In the Reformed Tradition, the Christian life may be divided into twelve steps, called the Ordo Salutis:
- Election (God's ancient choice of whom to save)
- Predestination (God's ancient plan for how to do it)
- Calling (hearing the external, unpersuasive Gospel message)
- Regeneration (being born again)
- Illumination (spiritual eyes and ears opened to hear the internal, persuasive message)
- Faith (believing in Jesus for salvation)
- Repentance (turning away from sin and toward God)
- Salvation (receiving forgiveness of sins, ransom, etc)
- Sanctification (consecration. and progressive growth in holiness)
- Adoption (into God's family)
- Perseverance (through hardship and persecution)
- Glorification (at Christ's return, when we are given a new body with no sinful nature)
With the above process in mind, the first book (with the working title All the Ways to Speak with God, though I might change it to The Redeemed Shall Talk) will be about Illumination, the fifth step toward glorification. Once a person has been illuminated, they can hear and see God with greater clarity. This clarity will increase as they mature. It is this Illumination that makes the half of the conversation which is God speaking to you both possible and fruitful. Dicipleship is impossible unless you can hear the voice of the Lord. That is why I will address it first. I have nearly finished the first draft of this book.
The second book (which I began before the first!) has the working title The Redeemed Shall Walk. This is a reference to a passage in Isaiah about the Way of Holiness, the path that is walked by all who pursue the sanctified life. This book will cover the whole plan of Salvation, not just the eighth step that has the name salvation. Salvation describes both the whole process and the central step of the process. I have nearly finished the first draft of this book, too.
The third book (which I have outlined but not begun), will cover the ninth step of the process, Sanctification. It will set forth a series of milestones that each believer will encounter as they proceed through life starting after they are initially saved. The majority of your Christian life is spent on this step. I am not sure of the title. I am considering The Redeemed Shall Grow.
Links to the other articles in this section:
The Yoke of Jesus What is the Yoke that Jesus tells us to take on?
