If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine – Jesus
I am reading and blogging through Grace, Salvation & Discipleship by Charles C. Bing, a book given to me by a friend who was eager to hear what I thought about it. In the first post we looked at how the book framed the idea of faith within the Free Grace movement (link).
In this post we will examine Bing’s presentation of discipleship. The purpose of the book and the Free Grace movement is to defend the idea that the term disciple is not a synonym for a Christian (aka believer).
Salvation is not Discipleship. This distinction is the basis of this book.
In defining a disciple, Bing offers four good observations:
- “A disciple is a learner, someone who is learning to become like his teacher”
- “The word disciple does not automatically refer to someone who is eternally saved”
- “the term disciples seems to to refer to Christians as a whole without distinction [in Acts]”
- a true disciple is “a follower of Jesus Christ as Master”
He then tries to defend the distinction, that believers are not disciples, using John 8:30-31 as the primary text. [1]
This [distinction] couldn’t be clearer than in John 8:30-31 where Jesus tells those who have already believed in Him how they can become disciples …
and later: Continue reading
Dead Heroes Don't Save 
