More Normal, Less Foreign

It’s a rescue and a resettlement. Immigration and adoption are two scriptural metaphors that frame our understanding of discipleship to formation.

First, immigration is a change of citizenship. A person leaves one authority, identity, and culture for another. The old has passed away. All things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). The person begins a lifelong cultural orientation—making this new identity and new life more normal, less foreign.

Adoption is similar. A child is embraced by a new family; given a new authority, a new identity, and a new culture (John 3:3-7). Over time, the child’s new identity and the new family’s culture become more normal, less foreign. Again, a process of cultural orientation.

In each case, the person has been given their new identity and new culture before they have adapted to it. Others help them adapt, but they participate too. They train into a new way (1 Cor. 9:24-27, 1 Tim. 4:6-10). Applied spiritually, this new home isn’t totally unfamiliar. It’s the home we have been longing for all our lives but have never seen. Now in Christ, we’re given a foretaste—we are introduced to our new selves and new way of life. And we watch for the day when our exile in this world will end—when we will know fully, just as we have been fully known (1 Cor. 13:12).

We can see that Christian discipleship is more than just praying ‘the sinner’s prayer’, memorizing Bible verses, and completing a prescribed set of studies. Discipleship begins with our rescue from the ‘domain of darkness’ and our transfer to (new citizenship in) the kingdom of God’s Son (Col. 1:13-14). It’s being embraced as God’s children and being made heirs of his kingdom (Rom. 8:14-17). It’s the life-long process of making Kingdom life more normal, less foreign. In fact, our new identity and new culture become so real to us that we can serve as ambassadors of God’s kingdom to the world we ‘left’ (2 Cor. 5:20). While still very much a part of Creation—with its joys and struggles—we are now ‘in the world’ but not ‘of the world’ (John 17:1-26). We live surrounded by the patterns of this world, but are being trained in the patterns of God’s kingdom (Rom. 12:2).

This way of discipleship was modeled by Jesus with his disciples. He invited them into relationship with himself. For three years, Jesus revealed himself to them. He talked constantly about what his kingdom is like and described those who would inhabit his kingdom. And he had them participate with him in Kingdom activity.

This is how our new identity and our new culture become more normal, less foreign; increasingly ‘Kingdom-normal’. Together, we gather around Jesus, our new King. We discover what he is like and what his kingdom is like. We see who we are in Christ. And we practice Kingdom activity. This is discipleship: training ourselves and others to be trained by Christ.