Salvation is free, but discipleship is costly.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that sentiment. Worse, I can't tell you how many times I've repeated it myself! It assumes a false dichotomy, as if salvation and discipleship were two different things. As if there were two (or more) classes in the kingdom of God, one class that simply believed the Gospel and another that did more.
Jesus didn't travel through the towns and villages of Israel preaching, "Believe in the Gospel and you will be saved!" He came preaching, "Repent and believe the Gospel!" (Mark 1:15) Prefacing the call to believe with the call to repent, or perhaps better, combining the call to believe with the call to repent shows that the two are intricately linked. You can't have one without the other. If there is no repentance, there can be no belief. If there is no belief, there can be no repentance.
The call to repent is a call first to stop following other gods or stop being our own god, and begin acknowledging Jesus as the One True Son of God. And if we begin living with Jesus as God, then we must begin worshiping and serving Him as He directs. If we must repent, it means we haven't been doing what He expects, and in fact we don't actually know what He expects. So we must begin learning what He requires. That's where every believer immediately also becomes a student or disciple of Jesus. There is no real gap between the two. Discipleship starts the moment we truly repent. So does salvation. If our salvation does not lead immediately into discipleship, we have not understood the Gospel so as to be saved.
The call to believe is a call to know who this Jesus is and how faith in Him alone saves us and changes us, so that we can worship and serve Him correctly. From the start, we need to learn. We need to learn who Jesus is. We need to learn what He's done to deliver us from God the Father's just wrath and into His glorious kingdom as a beloved child. We need to learn what God designed this salvation to work in us, and we need to learn how to live out the new creation we have become. There is no gap between salvation and discipleship. Both begin the moment we believe.
Jesus speaks of striving to enter through the narrow gate (Luke 13:24). "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:13-14, NIV84). He speaks of a narrow way beyond the gate. It is the path that leads to salvation; it is entered through the gate of salvation. The path has only one destination for those who remain on it. We can't walk the narrow path until we enter the narrow gate. When we enter the narrow gate, the path we are to follow stretches out before us, and follow it we must. Repenting and believing the Gospel is entering through the gate that sets us on the path of discipleship. The length of that path varies according to the length of our lives remaining after salvation. For some, there is only a single step. For most of us, there is a long way ahead and we need to get moving.
I didn't understand these things growing up in church. They gradually dawned on me as I read the whole of Scripture over and over. Old ideas die hard, especially when the Truth is choked by so many false or incomplete ideas, and their continual repetition. By His grace and the help of others, I understood that all Scripture was recorded so that I would know God and how I was called to live as a member of His family (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In time, the Scriptures prevailed.
You don't need our help to see and understand the Scriptures. We're nothing special. We're just core group of people determined to know and serve Christ better. We're not going to tell you what you're supposed to believe. We believe the Scriptures are clear enough on all things God wants us to understand. We just need to read it, believe it and obey it. That's our goal: To sit with you at the Master's feet, listening to His voice as He speaks through His Word. Some of us have long experience seeking and serving the Lord, and we'll bring those gifts and experiences to the discussion.
If you join us, you will gain a broad understanding of the vision and mission of God. You will establish and deepen your understanding of God and of His call on your life. You will gain tools to help others come to faith in Christ and grow in their relationship with God, and to keep yourself growing. You will gain confidence in your ability to understand God's Word and in your practice of His ways. You will be changed and equipped to serve Christ at home or abroad.