:: Ryan Thomas ::

The following comes from Divine Conspiracy, HarperCollins, 1998.

If you’ve read anything by Dallas Willard you’ll know how he despises (in his own gentle way) the concept that the Christian life amounts to a mere verbal claim with no connection to actual discipleship. He identifies those who have truly met and loved Jesus as persons who progressively change and grow throughout their lives. This change is loosely delineated into five stages which are helpful to give us an understanding of what the eternal life looks like in this world still beleaguered with sin.

He gets the initial idea from Jesus’ farewell discourse wherein he notes that Jesus distinguished two phases of his disciples’ lives: slaves and friends. “I no longer call you slaves… but you have become my friends because under my teaching you now have learned all that I heard from the Father.” (John 15:15) Willard describes the difference between the two:

“Of course, that does not mean we no longer serve Jesus. He remains our Master, and a favorite term of New Testament writers for themselves is ‘slave of Jesus Christ.’ But it is now on a different basis, a basis of loving cooperation, of shared endeavor, in which his aims are our aims and our understanding and harmony with his kingdom are essential to what he does with and through us.” (367)

So, the path of our “eternal kind of life in the Kingdom Among Us” looks something like this:

1. Confidence in and reliance upon Jesus. This confidence is in the saving position and power of the “Son of Man.” (John 3:15; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 12:3) This is the beginning of faith – hoping in things not seen. It is the first “yes” to Gospel story that we are dead in our sin… but hope has been freely offered.
2. A desire to be Jesus’ apprentice. This is “living within his word” and “putting his teachings into practice.” (John 8:31) This kind of living is what progressively brings us into the fullness of what the Kingdom of God has to offer us this side of Christ’s return. It is tasting the difference between slavery to sin and freedom in Christ.
3. Obedience. This is a crucial placement of the topic of obedience for Willard. He says that demanding obedience of people who do not love Jesus nor hate their sin, will only produce legalists who are crushed by the weight of their insufficiency. Obedience must be the natural consequence of experiencing the fullness of eternal life in the Kingdom Among Us. Why? Because obedience must be born of love and God’s Kingdom is where we come to know the love of God. (John 14:15, 21)
4. Pervasive inner transformation of the heart and soul. A life of apprenticeship to Jesus produces abiding love for Jesus. Abiding love for Jesus maintains desire to live and move and act and speak like Jesus. And that – not forced religion – is what actually transforms the heart of sin into a heart of holiness. In this state, Willard calls the fruits of the Spirit “the abiding condition of the disciple.” (368)
5. Power to work the works of the Kingdom. John 14:12 is one of the most shocking statements that Jesus ever made – and it’s one that probably very few Christians actually believe. How come most of us never taste the fruition of this promise to do greater things than the Messiah? Because very few of us actually live the life that Jesus lived. Yes, Jesus was God, but he limited his power to align with the human life because he was offering a real model for us to follow. True human life is meant to look like the life of Christ.