Purpose To assess your understanding for E- Supply Chain E Logis.docx

Purpose To assess your understanding for E- Supply Chain / E
Logistic Management in an organization of your choice.
Action Items:
1- Choose any business organization of your choice and
describe the organization according to the below:
2- Prepare a plan and Introduce concepts to E-Logistics and E-
Supply Chain Management.
3- Introduce the concepts of RFID Technologies for e-Enabling
Logistics Supply Chains Mention the various application(s) of
IT in supply chain management.
4- Project your business by using the following:
A- Strategic Planning (SP) Location of Supply Chain Facilities
Procurement Planning Distribution Facilities Planning Logistics
Planning
B -Operational Optimization (OO) Supply Chain Inventory
Optimization Logistics Resources Scheduling
C -Usability Modeling of ICT and other resources (UM) finding
the optimal solution Cost and Schedule Analysis recommending
and implementing the resources
D -Web-enabled Supply Chains (WEB) A Web-enabled order
Procurement and tracking system Warehouse Management
System Customer Relationship Management
Each student will have one Project. Project will be based on the
implementation of the e-supply chain and logistics in real
world.
Project will require summarizing, demonstrating, and the use
and potential values of SCM and LOGISTICS for an
organization.

The Project has to be completed individually by each student.
Presentation will be conducted during the WEEK-13 so that
students get time to complete their project work and present in
front of all the students in the class.
5-Students can also make business plan to introduce the
concepts, Tools and Technologies for any particular business
from KSA market
Chapter 12
· Chapters
· Introduction: A Starting Point for Wisdom
· Chapter 1: Seeking Wisdom
· Chapter 2: Evaluating Wisely
· Chapter 3: Wisdom in the Beginning
· Chapter 4: Departure from Wisdom
· Chapter 5: The Wisdom and Mercy of God
· Chapter 6: The Wisdom and Power of God
· Chapter 7: The Wisdom of Absolutes
· Chapter 8: Intellectual Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 9: Experiential Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 10: Emotional Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 11: Practical Wisdom
· Chapter 12: Developing Personal Wisdom
· Conclusion: The Call of Wisdom
· Glossary(current)
· Author Biographies
· Help
Chapter 12: Developing Personal WisdomBy James Waddell
Chapter 12
Topics
· Introduction
· Belief and Behavior
· Faith Working Through Love
· The Humility of Denying Oneself

· Taking Up One’s Cross and Living a New Life
· Developing Wisdom, Faith, and Love
· Conclusion
· Chapter Review
· References
Introduction
“Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thessalonians 4:14 English
Standard Version). This central belief of Christianity means that
restoration is already happening in God's creation. As the
previous chapter explained, the Kingdom of God continues to
grow and spread its influence, in which people and all created
things can experience restoration now, though it is not yet fully
realized. God will one day restore all creation by renewing it
through what the Bible calls the "new heavens and the new
earth." Yet, restoration is also happening now because Jesus
rose from the dead, and people begin experiencing this
restoration whenever they believe that Jesus is the Son of God
who died for sins and rose again. This chapter focuses on the
development of personal wisdom through the process of living
out redemption and restoration by faith.
As the textbook has addressed wisdom and worldview, it has
emphasized the importance of faith. To briefly review the theme
of faith, Chapters 1-2 covered the role that faith plays in
worldview, namely that people commit to certain worldview
assumptions through reason and faith. Chapters 3-4 reviewed
the first two acts of the biblical story, the creation of humanity
and their lack of faith as demonstrated in the fall of humanity.
These chapters also emphasized the biblical theme of “the fear
of the Lord,” which corresponds to faith. Chapters 5-6
introduced Jesus Christ's life and ministry and explained why
faith in Jesus brings about redemption, which is the third act of
the biblical story. In Chapters 7-10, the reader encountered
various obstacles to faith. Chapter 11 returned to the biblical
story, covering the fourth act of restoration and the importance
of faith during the current period in which creation exists
between what God has already done and what has not yet

happened. This chapter will now turn to address what it means
to live by faith in light of the biblical story.
Belief and Behavior
As Chapter 6 explained, faith serves as the channel through
which one receives redemption and restoration. Believing
allows one to receive the blessings and benefits of what God has
done through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Faith also
serves as the way a Christian lives after he or she first believes
in Jesus. Through the power of Christ’s resurrection, Christians
live a new life “by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).
Yet, many people struggle to believe the claim that Jesus rose
from the dead; in fact, one of Jesus's own disciples, Thomas,
struggled to believe it. The story of Thomas in John 20
illustrates the importance of belief and it emphasizes how faith
leads to action, or how belief leads to behavior.
Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, c. 1602.
Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany.
After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to Mary Magdalene
and to 10 of his disciples; however, Thomas did not see Jesus
when he first appeared. According to John 20:25, he refused to
believe that Jesus had risen until he could see and touch the
wounds of Jesus himself. Then, when Thomas himself saw the
resurrected Jesus, Jesus invited him to “Put your finger here,
and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my
side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). The idea of a
resurrected Christ came to Thomas in the form of seeing and
touching real wounds. The pursuit of wisdom demands that
Thomas make a determination as to whether what he was seeing
and touching was, in fact, real. Was putting his finger in Jesus’
side enough to convince him that Jesus had risen from the dead?
Astounded by the sight of Jesus before him, Thomas worshiped
Jesus, declaring “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Amazingly, this disciple who had doubted Jesus’ resurrection
gave the most direct worship of Jesus as God. In seeing Jesus
standing before him, Thomas truly saw Jesus as divine. The

faith that Thomas had in Jesus led to the action of worship;
Thomas’ belief in Jesus brought about worshipful behavior.
Belief leads to behavior; faith leads to love.
As grotesque as this story sounds, its beauty lies in the gritty,
ordinary, everyday reality of the power of faith to change one’s
perspective. In other words, Thomas believed in Jesus not
because he could see Jesus, but rather, he saw Jesus clearly
because he believed. Jesus himself emphasized the importance
of faith as he blesses all “those who have not seen and yet have
believed” (John 20:29). Believing thus leads to a way of seeing
and living.
The stated purpose of the Gospel of John itself emerges through
the story of Thomas, namely “that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have
life in his name” (John 20:31). A worldview frames beliefs that
shape certain behaviors, and previous chapters have focused on
the formation of the core beliefs of worldview in general and
the Christian worldview in particular. Through a focus on “faith
working through love,” this chapter will address the practical
level of considering what beliefs and what behaviors lead to
wisdom, specifically examining the Christian worldview’s
approach to wisdom in daily life.
Faith Working Through Love
The way of Jesus offers an objective perspective on wisdom to
which one must subscribe individually. In other words, Jesus
has laid out a way to wisdom, but a person must commit to
Jesus’ way in order to follow Jesus’ way. The Apostle Paul
explains this commitment that leads to wisdom as “faith
working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Using the concept of
discipleship explained in Chapter 11, the rest of this chapter
will explore that what “counts … [in the Christian life is] …
faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).
Faith working through love expresses itself as the continuing
faith of the Christian life, or what Chapter 11 described as
discipleship. Discipleship is the process of following Jesus
Christ and moving into Christian maturity by imitating Jesus’

example and implementing his teaching in a community of
believers, in relationship with Jesus himself, and by the power
of the Holy Spirit. If conversion describes the moment in which
a Christian comes to believe in Jesus and experiences salvation,
discipleship describes every moment thereafter. It is an ongoing
reality of living out the work that has already been
accomplished by Jesus. Jesus accomplished all that was needed
to make human beings right with God by his death and
resurrection; therefore, when a person places trust in Jesus, he
or she is actually made right with God. By faith, God has
transformed the Christian into a new person. Discipleship then
relates to the life lived after being made right. It is, in this
sense, a process of maturing into what is already true of a
Christian.
Yet, the transformation that comes through faith must also take
into account the life of faith. In other words, true faith in Jesus
results in a life of following Jesus. The story of Mark 8:27-38
captures this emphasis on faith and discipleship in the words of
Jesus himself. This story reveals the significance of faith
working through love as it relates to following Jesus.
The Example of Jesus
This story begins with Jesus on a walk with his disciples. He
asked them two questions about perceptions of his identity. The
first question involved others: “Who do the people say I am?”
(Mark 8:27). After the disciples gave the people’s answers of a
prophet, Elijah, or John the Baptist, Jesus directed the question
to them: “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29). Peter was
blessed with the chance to reveal Jesus’ true identity: “You are
the Christ” (Mark 8:30). Here Peter revealed his faith in Jesus
by declaring Jesus’ identity. Matthew’s Gospel states that
Peter’s words of faith would serve as the foundation for the
church (Matthew 16:18).
Jesus’ Question
Jesus’ question to his disciples reveals the journey of faith and
reason that each disciple, and indeed each person, must travel.
Remarkably, Jesus was content to let his disciples steal the

show here. Rather than revealing himself as the Christ, Jesus
asked his own disciples to name what they believed to be true.
Perhaps even more remarkably, Jesus based his foundation for
the church on what his disciples said. The testimony of Peter,
whose name means “Rock,” became the rock and cornerstone
for what Christians have believed ever since. The question has
great power because it moves past the structures that people
create to make sense of reality and gets to the heart: “Who do
you say Jesus is?”
Jesus’ question remains powerful as one applies the question to
his or her own beliefs. In a way, this book can help a person
address this question. Each person must find an answer for how
he or she would describe who Jesus is; and yet, Jesus is who he
is, independent of what a person might believe. The power of
the question lies in the faith that is revealed by the person’s
answer. There is an answer given in Mark’s story that points to
Jesus’ revealed identity, but people do not believe in Jesus until
they have wrestled with his question.
Following Peter’s statement of faith, Jesus revealed that he
would “suffer many things and be rejected … and be killed, and
after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Unable to accept this,
Peter rebuked Jesus, to which Jesus responded strongly: “Get
behind me, Satan! You are not setting your mind on the things
of God, but on the things of man” (Mark 8:33). The way Jesus
would love others matters. Jesus did not come as a king to be
served, but rather he lowered himself to serve (Mark 10:45) and
demonstrated the greatest love by laying down his own life
(John 15:13). Faith works through love in Jesus’ life just as in
the Christian’s life. Because Jesus trusted his Father and trusted
who he was, Jesus was able to love through a humble and
sacrificial death. His faith worked through love.
Jesus opens this same path to all who follow him. Jesus invites
all people, “the crowd … with his disciples,” to follow him by
saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Christians
thus follow Jesus’ example in humility, sacrifice, and love.

First, Jesus’ followers deny themselves; they come “not to be
served, but to serve,” just as Jesus did (Mark 10:45). Denying
oneself means a life of humility. Though Jesus would have had
a legitimate claim on serving himself or on others serving him,
he denied himself, “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians
2:7). Discipleship thus means following Jesus’ example of
denying oneself.
Next, Jesus’ followers take up their cross. The language of a
cross emphasizes the sacrificial work that a Christian does
daily. Taking up one’s cross means believing that he or she has
died with Jesus to his or her sin and, therefore, now lives a new
life of sacrificial love (Romans 6:2-4). A person must surrender
his or her way of living in order to discover true life. In this
way, following Jesus means losing one’s life in order to save it,
as Jesus states: “whoever loses his life for my sake and the
gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). “Such grace … is costly
because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a
man the only true life” (Bonhoeffer, 1995, p. 45). Discipleship
thus means following Jesus’ example of taking up a cross.
Third, Jesus commands his disciples to follow him. It sounds a
bit strange for Jesus to say, “If anyone wants to [follow] me, he
must … follow me” (Mark 8:34), but the simplicity of the
saying reveals the need to follow Jesus intentionally by loving
as he loved (John 13:34). The statement as a whole also speaks
to following Jesus in a particular way, namely through self-
denial, cross bearing, and emulation of Christ’s life and
character. Discipleship thus means following Jesus’ example of
loving God and loving others through humility, a new identity,
and love.
Faith at Work in Following Jesus
Because there is such a high cost to discipleship, Jesus is
careful in his ministry to emphasize how his disciples should
follow him. One common misunderstanding of the Christian life
revolves around the concept of good works. Christians
themselves can place emphasis on doing good works without
giving proper attention to the basis for good works. Using the

words of Paul that form the theme of the chapter, what counts in
the Christian life is not good works that earn God’s pleasure,
but rather “faith working through love.” In fact, when pressed
by the crowd to define what God’s work is, Jesus replied, “This
is the work of God, to believe in him whom [God] has sent”
(John 6:29). The only “work” of discipleship is to believe in
Jesus and to trust in Jesus’ work that has already been
accomplished. All Christians’ good works flow out of faith that
works through love.
Discipleship thus involves faith that works to rest in what
Christ has already done. This work to rest is characterized by
denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following Jesus.
Denying oneself means setting aside any selfishness, agenda, or
hindrance that gets in the way of knowing Jesus. Taking up
one’s cross means living in the death of Jesus, remembering the
resurrection of Jesus, and defining oneself according to Jesus. If
Jesus, his identity, mission, death, and resurrection, becomes
the center of one’s worldview, following Jesus leads to wisdom
through a life of love. Following Jesus, then, means living out a
"faith working through love."
Such faith emphasizes the importance of losing one’s life in
order to save it. The way of Jesus demands that people remove
themselves from the center of the worldview and let Jesus
become the new center. True wisdom comes from removing
oneself from the place of determining rules and justifying
behavior, for “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
(Proverbs 9:10). Jesus’ way presents a God-centered approach
to wisdom, which clearly states that losing one’s life in service
and love for others, even one’s enemies, is the means to human
flourishing. What "counts ... [is] faith working through love"
(Galatians 5:6). Alternate worldviews tend to place oneself or
one’s community at the center of worldview, which can lead to
a near-sighted view of reality. For example, a human-centered
worldview might determine wisdom by what makes humans
happy, an idea reflected in statements such as “whatever makes
you happy is right; whatever harms another is wrong.” Yet, this

approach lacks a clear definition of what human flourishing is,
and, therefore, provides no objective reason for loving another
person (unless it makes every person happy to do so). A human-
centered worldview tends to result in control: control of one’s
circumstances, control of one’s choices, and even control of
others’ choices. The God-centered approach of the Christian
worldview follows Jesus’ way to wisdom, which tends to result
in surrender: surrender of one’s priorities, surrender of one’s
agenda, and even surrender of one’s life. Even though it is a
paradox, Jesus teaches that living abundantly comes from laying
one’s own life down and that finding wisdom comes from laying
one’s own bias down. Thus, true happiness comes from
surrender and following Jesus. If happiness is one's goal in life,
he or she will live life chasing happiness, never quite finding
satisfaction. If trusting God becomes one’s goal, true happiness
through the process of sacrificial love will be discovered. This
point echoes Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
[food, clothing, and other needs] will be added to you.”
Discipleship is the process of following Jesus’ way of laying
down life in love; thus, discipleship is a pathway that leads to
true happiness and to wisdom.
This path of wisdom means following the example of Jesus,
living out faith working through love. Through denying
themselves, Christians practice humility. Through taking up
one's cross, Christians live a new identity. Through following
Jesus, Christians love God and others. In these ways, Christians
live a life of faith working through love.
The Humility of Denying Oneself
Discipleship, like salvation, is God’s work. From start to finish,
God is working in each Christian (Philippians 1:6). God works
to save, transform, and mature people. In each case, the work of
the Christian is the simple and demanding task of trusting and
receiving God’s work. A Christian can only accomplish this
work through humility. As Jesus’ example reveals, the humility
of resting in God’s work is difficult because it costs a person

his or her life. Yet, God rewards those who take the risk of
trusting his work by giving them the Holy Spirit to dwell in
them. In order to understand how denying oneself through
humility leads to love, one must understand the work of the
Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who carries out the
work of the Father in creation. “The Holy Spirit is God’s
empowering presence, and what he empowers in us is a life of
blessing and salvation, a life of resurrection” (Peterson, 2010,
p. 202). For the work of salvation, the Holy Spirit works within
Christians to grow them up as followers of Jesus Christ. The
New Testament often refers to the metaphor of a child growing
up to describe this process of salvation. Jesus called the
beginning of salvation being “born again” (John 3:3), Peter
spoke of drinking “pure spiritual milk” to describe early growth
in the Christian life (1 Peter 2:2), and the author of Hebrews
longed for Christians to be mature enough to eat “solid food”
(Hebrews 5:12-14). In other words, salvation is pictured as a
new birth, a stage of growing up from infancy, and a stage of
maturity.
This process of maturing in the Christian faith is referred to as
spiritual formation, which is the Holy Spirit’s gradual and
ongoing work to form a Christian into the image of Jesus Christ.
Formation reminds a person that the process shapes and molds
one into the likeness of Jesus himself. Spiritual reminds a
person that the process is accomplished by the Spirit of God
rather than by human work. Like clay in the hands of a potter,
Christians are formed by the Holy Spirit into “little Christs”
(Lewis, 1952, p. 199), reflecting more and more the new
creation that they became through trusting in Jesus. Thus, the
Holy Spirit’s work in the Christian’s life can be described as
“maturing into who I already am” (Lynch, McNicol, & Thrall,
2011, p. 40). Humility acts as the way that Christians receive
and experience the Holy Spirit's work in their lives.
Newness of Life

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans
6:4).
The Christian life is a new life that is lived by faith. Christ’s
death and resurrection redeems those who believe from an old
life of darkness and self-defeating patterns into a new life of
light and victory. This new spiritual life reflects the physical
life by similar patterns of birth and growth. Being “born again”
is perhaps the most famous of these similarities. The image of a
new birth refers to the transformation that God works so that a
Christian becomes a new person. God has acted to renew and re-
create those who trust in him, which parallels human birth. Just
as a baby’s birth marks the beginning of new life in the world, a
Christian’s initial faith marks the beginning of new life in the
Spirit. Just as an infant reflects God’s work of creation in this
world, a Christian reflects God’s work of renewal in the spirit.
Just as the DNA for a fully grown adult is present in a newborn,
the identity of Christ is present in a Christian.
The new birth into the Christian life marks the first step of
maturity for a Christian. Though God’s work is complete and
sufficient for renewing a person into a new creation, the process
of growing into what God has done takes time.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
A brief overview of the Holy Spirit’s role in the Christian life is
needed. In the work of spiritual formation, the Holy Spirit:
· Lives in each Christian. Because each Christian is holy, his or
her body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19);
· Comforts, teaches, and reminds Christians concerning the
truth of Jesus’ words (John 14:26);
· “Convict[s] the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment” (John 16:8);
· Frees Christians from bondage by reminding them that they
are God’s children who can cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans
8:15);
· Gives words to prayers that cannot be uttered (Romans 8:27);

· Empowers the Christian by battling the remaining sinful
nature and freeing a Christian from the bondage of the Law
(Galatians 5:17-18); and
· Seals Christians with the promise that God will complete the
work that he started (Ephesians 1:13; Philippians 1:6).
In these ways and more, the Holy Spirit works to mature
Christians and to form them into the image of Christ. After
being united to Christ, Christians have the Holy Spirit living
and working in them. This presence and power of the Holy
Spirit has the gradual effect of producing certain virtues of
character in Christians, referred to in Scripture as the fruit of
the Spirit.
Fruit of the Spirit
The Bible calls the results of this work the fruit of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is the list of characteristics or attributes
of the Holy Spirit’s work in a Christian’s life, which include
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). The sense of
the term refers both to the gradual, hidden work of the Holy
Spirit to form Christian character and to the evidence of that
work. The fruit is the Holy Spirit’s influence that manifests in a
Christian’s life. The New Testament contains multiple lists of
virtues, but the focus on this particular list is critical because
the phrase “fruit of the Spirit” reveals significant insight into
the operation of the Spirit. The emphasis lies on the means and
the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s work.
The phrase “fruit of the Spirit” speaks to the nature of the
growth that occurs in Christians because of the work of the
Holy Spirit. Like the growth of fruit, a Christian matures
through an ongoing and largely hidden process involving life-
giving nutrients. Even though the Holy Spirit’s work happens
gradually and beyond sight, the presence of the Spirit can be
witnessed through the presence of the fruit, just as the tree’s
growth from nutrients can be tasted through the quality of fruit.
Thus, fruit of the Spirit also speaks to how the Holy Spirit
works because it focuses on the quality of virtue produced by

God.
The phrase in Galatians 5, therefore, expresses the need to
recognize the work of God in the work that Christians do. There
is much to do in the Christian life, but much has already been
done. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, being formed into
Christ’s image would be severely hindered, if not impossible.
Because of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power, the Apostle
John wrote, “[God’s] commandments are not burdensome” (1
John 5:3). God’s commands certainly seem burdensome as one
tries to obey them, but a Christian can trust and rest in the work
that the third person of the Trinity is doing in him or her. The
Holy Spirit grows the fruit, and the Christian lives by faith
working through love to manifest the fruit. This faith then
works in the Christian to do good works in light of what is true
about him or her, namely that he or she bears fruit of love and
the other virtues. Certainly, Christians can help or hinder the
process of spiritual formation as they either trust or mistrust
God, because, again, what a person believes in has great
consequence, as the example of Thomas illustrated. Belief
comes before behavior and influences it; therefore, God must be
the one who starts and finishes the work of saving and maturing
Christians, and Christians must be the ones who humbly receive
God’s work by faith and let faith work through love.
Taking Up One’s Cross and Living a New Life
Christians also follow Jesus by dying with him and rising with
him, since Christians are united to Jesus. While this language
can confuse, it will become clear why the statement is expressed
in this way. God has loved humanity by sending his Son (John
3:16) and offering eternal life in God (John 17:3, 21). Faith
opens a person’s heart to receive God’s love through trust, and
so faith allows a Christian to have eternal life in God. The
biblical writers called this reality being united to Jesus.
Union with Jesus occurs through believing in Jesus’ death and
resurrection, what Jesus called “taking up one’s cross.” The
New Testament uses the language of a cross to emphasize the
death of Jesus, which also implies the resurrection of Jesus.

Paul explained the process of union with Christ’s death and
resurrection in Romans 6:2-4:
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by
baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in
newness of life.
In other words, Paul pictured Christians as dying with Jesus,
being buried with Jesus, and being raised with Jesus.
Consequently, the Christian has died to sin and now lives a new
life by virtue of this union with Jesus.
Thus, the Christian life emphasizes Christ’s finished work of
salvation as the objective reality on which belief and behavior
are formed (Peterson, 2005, pp. 184-186). The phrase, “Christ’s
finished work” refers to the work of salvation resting solely on
Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to accomplish all that is
needed for salvation. If Christ died for sin and was raised to
life, then Christians have all sin (past, present, and future)
forgiven and live a new life. Thus, “Christ’s finished work”
reminds Christians that “[nothing] will be able to separate
[them] from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39),
since all sin, failure, shame, and guilt has already been
overcome by the cross and resurrection.
Therefore, the proper response of humanity is, through trust and
obedience, to rest in Jesus’ work to transform people; however,
this rest is not passive. The life of faith results in a person who
actively does good works for the right reasons, as explained in
the discussion of justification from Chapter 6. The degree to
which one is following Jesus by faith is the degree to which he
or she will live out the wisdom of Jesus.
Union with Jesus
The process of a Christian becoming united with Jesus Christ
finds perhaps its best description in the language of 2
Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake, [God] made [Jesus] to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the

righteousness of God.” In this verse, Paul explained that Jesus,
who had not sinned and is “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), took
on the punishment for human sin, which is death. Paul also
noted that Christians, who place their trust in Jesus’ death and
resurrection, can become the righteousness of God. Though they
were sinners, Christians can become righteous with Jesus’ own
righteousness. In this exchange, then, Jesus took on the
punishment of sin and human beings take on the righteousness
of Christ. Being united to Jesus comes with many benefits;
Christians are:
· Adopted as children (Romans 8:15),
· Beloved by God (Colossians 3:12),
· Free from condemnation (Romans 8:1), and
· Made equals with each other (Galatians 3:28).
In essence, all that is true about the character of Jesus becomes
true for the Christian because God has united the Christian to
Jesus through faith.
A New Character
At the foundation of how a Christian lives out faith working
through love is the formation of character. Character formation
is God’s work in a Christian to develop godly, holy, and
righteous character traits. While there is certainly some overlap
in scope with the term spiritual formation, character formation
distinctly refers to the development of character as both a one-
time reality and an ongoing reality.
Whenever Christians are united to Christ through faith, they are
new creations and fully receive the character of Jesus himself
infused with their own characters. In God's eyes, the Christian
has died to sin along with Jesus dying on the cross, and the
Christian rises to live a new life along with Jesus rising from
the dead. In this way, character formation is a one-time reality;
it happened when Jesus died and rose again, and Christians
receive God's work through faith today. Yet, as Christians
mature into the image of Christ, their characters are gradually
being formed to become more and more like that of Jesus. In
this way, character formation is an ongoing reality; it still

happens by the Holy Spirit’s work in Christians today. The
already and not yet language from Chapter 11 emphasizes this
dual reality well. Christians are already righteous and holy
because of Christ’s death and resurrection; however, Christians
do not yet fully express this righteousness and holiness most of
the time. Character formation is already true and is also
becoming true; it has happened and is also happening now. In
order to express how the claims of character formation apply to
the new life of faith working through love, it is necessary to
turn to Ephesians 4:20-24.
Already and Not Yet Applied: Hebrews 10
Chapter 11 outlined the point that the Kingdom of God is
already and not yet. It is already experienced, but not yet fully
realized. In Hebrews 10, there is a beautiful expression of the
already and not yet reality of salvation. Within the span of five
verses, the author seems to communicate differing emphases on
the theme of sanctification, or making someone holy. The
difference in language reveals the power of the already and not
yet emphasis for the Christian life. “And by that will we have
been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The linguistic emphasis is on the
past nature of the sanctification. Because of Jesus’ death on the
cross, Christians have already been made holy. “For by a single
offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). This verse emphasizes the present
nature of the sanctification. Because of Jesus’ death on the
cross, Christians are being made holy. The language speaks of
sanctification as a tension between what has happened and what
is happening.
How one resolves this tension in verbiage is critical for how one
lives the Christian life. Will the focus lie more on the need for
present holiness or on finished holiness? Many Christians
navigate toward present holiness and believe they need to live a
better life because of what God has done for them. Yet the
author of Hebrews emphasizes the once-and-for-all nature of
Jesus’ death, which frees a Christian from the need to better

oneself, and which has ongoing effects in the lives of his
followers. With this freedom in mind, a Christian can rest in
what has already been accomplished by Jesus and work to
manifest what is not yet finished.
Old Self, New Self
In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul emphasizes living out of the
reality of what God has done to transform a Christian. Verses
20-24 fall into a broader theme that God has saved Christians by
grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), thereby allowing Christians
to live a new life because they are, in fact, new creatures (2
Corinthians 5:17). The passage addresses two ongoing actions
of faith working through love.
Taking Off the Old
Paul begins the passage by focusing on the old with which God
has done away. He encourages Christians to remove the old
person from themselves like they would take off a dirty shirt.
While this exhortation sounds like something that Christians do
themselves, it is actually God’s work. In Ephesians 2, Paul
famously states that salvation is “not as a result of works, so
that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Thus, the taking off of
the old self does not come as a result of works, but rather as a
result of grace. The process is hard work, but it is human work
that manifests Christ’s finished work. It is a process of working
out the reality of what God has already accomplished. The
removal of the old self has already been done, but is now lived
out and realized through practice.
This process is realized gradually, like peeling back layers of an
onion one section at a time. The process of taking off the old
person is also like handling an onion in that it brings tears; the
old way of life has brought with it a great deal of shame, pain,
fear, and failure. A follower of Jesus must face the pain and
shame, the fear and the failure of each layer of the old self.
Practically, the process can be done by intentionally bringing
all of the baggage and disappointment of the old and trusting it
with Jesus and with trusted others. Whenever the old self rears
its corrupt face, Christians can remind themselves that Christ’s

death and resurrection are enough to forgive all sin. In this way,
the transformation of being united to Christ changes the patterns
of belief, which impacts thoughts and actions.
Putting On the New
Paul’s first ongoing action of taking off the old is now
contrasted and completed with the opposite action of putting on
the new. Christians take off a dirty shirt and put on a clean one;
they take off the old self and put on the new self. What is new
gets described as “the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
Again, Paul’s focus lies on God’s work to transform people into
new creatures. These new creatures are all those united to
Christ, all those created truly righteous and holy, all those
called to follow Jesus. In each case, it is God’s work to make a
new person; even more, it is God’s work to make a new person
truly righteous and holy, with the very righteousness and
holiness of Christ.
Thus, the work to put on the new self cannot be the work of
human beings for themselves, rather, it is work that has already
been done by God and is now realized through trust. Putting on
the new does not make one righteous or holy, but instead covers
one with what is actually true about him or her. In other words,
if a Christian fails “to put on the new self,” God has already
created the new self, and, therefore, the new self describes a
Christian more than the old self, no matter how much a
Christian’s life might still reflect the old self. The
transformation creates new patterns of action stemming from a
belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Identity
What has been written about Ephesians 4 can be summarized in
the term identity. Identity is the true nature of a person or the
being who a person truly is. For Christians, identity involves
living out of the new self that was created truly righteous and
holy. Therefore, no matter how much a Christian sins or how
little change he or she experiences, he or she is, in fact, new in
Christ. Jesus lives in a Christian because of trust in him, not

because a Christian lives a perfect life. The spiritual DNA of a
Christian is that of Christ, even if it does not appear to be so,
just as the DNA of a caterpillar is that of a butterfly, even
though it does not look very much like a butterfly. In both
cases, all that is needed is time to grow into what is ultimately
true.
Therefore, because it is Christ’s death and resurrection that
unites Christians to Christ, makes them new, and gives them
identity in Christ, a Christian’s work is to rest in Christ’s work.
A wise life comes about through living out the character of
Jesus. In fact, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “you are in
Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,
righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Jesus himself
is the wisdom of taking up one’s cross and living a new life.
The Christian life thus involves a daily battle to live out Jesus’
example by faith, which, as Galatians 5:6 notes, results in love.
Developing Wisdom, Faith, and Love
Carl Bloch. The Sermon on the Mount, 1877. The Museum of
National History, Hillerød, Denmark.
Finally, Christian wisdom means faith working through love by
following the example of Jesus. Christians love as Jesus loved
(John 13:34). Because they are redeemed, righteous, holy, and
wise, Christians now follow Jesus’ way of love in the power of
the Holy Spirit, by the work of Jesus Christ, through the love of
the Father. Through Jesus’ teachings, the concept of developing
wisdom will examine how specifically to follow Jesus by faith
working through love.
Jesus emphasizes love as the center of his way of wise living.
When asked what the greatest command was, Jesus replied,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind … And the second is like
it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38-
39). Loving God and loving others forms the core of Jesus’
teaching on what it means to follow him.
The classic ethical teaching of Jesus for his followers is

Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. In this section of the
Gospel of Matthew, Jesus addressed faith working through love
by emphasizing radical love, authentic prayer, and wise
foundations. A very brief overview of these specific teachings
in the Sermon on the Mount will demonstrate the characteristics
of faith working through love according to Jesus.
Radical Love
Wise living first means a focus on loving others in radical ways.
Matthew 5 addresses this theme of radical love through Jesus’
focus on the spirit of the Old Testament Law. Faith works
through love as love goes beyond the letter of the Law and
meets the needs of others.
Jesus revealed the spirit of the Old Testament Law by
expanding the scope of selected commandments from the Law.
In Matthew 5:17-48 Jesus stated his purpose to fulfill the Law
and then proceeds to fill up the meaning of laws on murder,
adultery, retaliation, and love. By the end of this section of
Jesus’ sermon, a clear picture of radical love emerges.
Jesus focused on the spirit of the Law by picturing a life of
love. This picture of love actually originates from the Old
Testament Law itself; Jesus merely applied the explicit
commands of loving God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and loving others
(Leviticus 19:18) as a means of interpreting the Law. In Christ’s
fulfillment of the Law, the life of love first focused on love for
one’s neighbors. Jesus expands the command against murder to
become a command against hatred itself. Even though it is
internal, anger against one’s neighbors that leads to hatred is
inconsistent with a life of love.
The life of love also means love for one’s spouse or for the
opposite sex. Jesus expanded the command against adultery to
include lust as well. Lust, or using another person for one’s own
pleasure only, is the opposite of love, but protection of one’s
spouse or of the opposite sex is a consequence of love.
The life of love takes a more radical turn when Jesus addressed
love for one’s persecutors. The Old Testament Law gave
provision for retaliation, but Jesus taught a way of love through

peacemaking. “Turn the other cheek,” the most famous
command in this section, means taking a stand and refusing to
let one’s persecutor win. It means being willing to love in the
face of hatred, which “overcome[s] evil with good” (Romans
12:21).
The life of love becomes most difficult when trying to live
Jesus’ final instruction in this section of the sermon, love for
one’s enemies. Loving one’s neighbor is established by the Old
Testament Law, but the term neighbor had come to be defined
narrowly in order to justify hating one’s enemies. Jesus called
for a life of love consistent with the Father in heaven, who
loves his enemies. In fact, living out the love taught by Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount is presented by Matthew as being
perfection (Matthew 5:48). Thus, following Jesus’ way means
living a life of radical love.
Authentic Prayer
Centrally, Jesus’ way is a way of prayer. Prayer aligns one’s
heart with the love of God. The life of following Jesus “consists
of things to do and ways to think; however, if there is no prayer
at the center nothing lives. Prayer is the heart that pumps blood
into all the words and acts” (Peterson, 2008, p. 167). To define
it, prayer is a form of communication between God and
humanity, with the implicit belief that God hears and answers
human requests.
Jesus’ teaching on prayer reminds Christians that prayer is
primarily for the individual coming before God and not for the
individual coming to impress others (Matthew 6:5-6); prayer is
conversation with God, not the crowds. He then provided a
model prayer called the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). In this
prayer, several important themes emerge that describe the wise
living of following Jesus. The prayer proves so central to the
Sermon on the Mount that the following sections of Matthew 6
and 7 could be explained as expressions of how to live out the
Lord’s Prayer through love (Guelich, 1982, p. 8-9). Perhaps the
most significant aspect of the prayer is the beginning, as Jesus
invited his followers to call God “Our Father” along with him.

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that Christians pray with Jesus,
and, therefore, get the privilege of calling God their own Father
in heaven. The love that one experiences from God then
becomes love that one gives to others. Prayer functions as the
hub of the Christian life; therefore, Jesus’ way takes intentional
and spontaneous time to pray authentic prayers.
Biblical Examples of Prayer
Throughout the Bible, prayer has taken various forms. Prayers
sometimes involve specific language, such as a generic “in
Jesus’ name,” according to John 14:13-14, or a more specific
Trinitarian formula from Matthew 28:19 of “in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Some prayers
that would later serve as models for ways to pray were
preserved carefully by the biblical authors. Here are two of the
more significant of these prayers:
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom
come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:9-13).
The Magnificat:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is
his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from
generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has
brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of
humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and
the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant
Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our
fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever (Luke 1:46-55).
Though these prayers provide helpful forms for saying personal
prayers, much prayer is spontaneous. That is to say, a person

prays to God on the spot, expressing whatever is on his or her
heart or receiving whatever God is speaking.
Wise Foundations
The Sermon on the Mount ends with three either/or images to
prioritize living wisely. The metaphors of a gated pathway, fruit
from a tree, and a building foundation reveal that each person
must decide the trajectory of his or her life, whether that
orientation involves following Jesus’ way or not. From these
three metaphors one can understand the importance of Jesus’
teaching for the Christian worldview.
The Wise and Foolish Builder story recounts the different
results that two house builders experienced when they built a
house on some beautiful beachfront property. One built his
house on the foundation of a rock, and it stood firm even in the
midst of a storm. The other built his house on the sand, and it
fell down in the midst of a storm. As emphasized in Chapter 1,
foundations make a significant difference in supporting what is
built on top of them. The Christian worldview rests its
foundation on Jesus, his identity, mission, teachings, death, and
resurrection; according to Jesus, it will hold up in the midst of
even the strongest rain, flood, wind, or trouble.
What is the foundation? In Matthew 7:24 and 26, the foundation
is described as “everyone who hears these words of [Jesus]” and
either does them (wise) or does not do them (foolish). Thus,
believing and living out Jesus’ teachings is the foundation for
building wisely. Hearing alone is not enough to build a reliable
foundation; the wisdom of Jesus’ way is discovered as it is
trusted and tried out. In other words, following Jesus requires
faith working through love.
It is vital to examine worldview because it is the foundation of
belief, behavior, and life. Everyone must form their beliefs
stemming from their worldview, just as builders must build
structures upon foundations. Whatever is built or believed
succeeds or fails based not on the beauty of the design, nor on
the functionality of the space, but on the strength of the
foundation. The wisdom of any worldview might have parallels

to the Christian worldview, but the foundation from which a
person believes and acts matters much more than the particular
beliefs or actions themselves. Yet, the foundations of this love
must be examined in order to determine whether it is wise or
not.
It is vital for Christians to rest on the foundation of Jesus’
teachings and to remember Jesus’ emphasis on radical love to
others in Matthew 5 and faith expressed by prayer in Matthew 6.
Christians can easily miss the point of Jesus’ teaching and
understand it as a new sort of law that must be kept in which
good works become a sort of litmus test to evaluate whether one
is really even a Christian or not. Yet, such thinking ignores an
essential point: All of Jesus’ teaching stemmed from the reality
that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “As the assurance of God’s love
allows us to cease striving to please him for our own benefit,
our good works will begin reflecting more of the selfless
righteousness that is truly holy” (Chapell, 2001, p. 11). God’s
great love is the foundation upon which the Christian worldview
is built; all beliefs, thoughts, and actions flow from the
cornerstone of “the breadth and length and height and depth” of
Christ’s love (Ephesians 3:18). God loves and therefore God
works; God works and therefore Christians receive by faith;
Christians receive by faith and therefore become new people;
these new people follow Jesus by faith working through love.
Because Christians have been united with Jesus and transformed
by Jesus, they follow the example of Jesus. This way is the way
of discipleship, which is the process of growing up into what
has already been accomplished by God’s work. This way is the
way of imitating Jesus in belief and behavior. This way is the
way of humility, sacrifice, and love. In all its expressions,
Jesus’ way means resting in what God has done to save the
world. The more one works to live wisely according to his or
her own system, the less power he or she will have to follow
Jesus. Conversely, the more one works to trust Jesus’ death and
resurrection, the more power he or she will have to follow
Jesus. Paradoxically, it is in resting that Christians find the

power to follow Jesus by faith working through love.
Conclusion
As this chapter has outlined, following Jesus develops personal
wisdom. For Christians, Jesus himself became their wisdom (1
Corinthians 1:30), and this wisdom is reflected in faith working
through love. The wisdom of God often appears as foolishness
to humanity (1 Corinthians 1:22-25), but as Jesus taught,
“wisdom is justified by her deeds” (Matthew 11:19). Every
person has need of wisdom in his or her life, and each person
possesses the ability to determine wise ways of thinking or wise
courses of action. From life-altering decisions to daily choices,
worldview affects belief and behavior. Jesus’ teaching of
“wisdom … justified by her deeds” reminds each person that
thoughts manifest themselves and actions have consequences.
Therefore, it is necessary to navigate the path of wisdom
carefully. What people believe will shape who they become. In
the case of the Christian worldview, by faith working through
love, who one believes is Jesus Christ and who one becomes
like is also Jesus Christ.
Chapter Review
Main Ideas
· Practicing wisdom in the Christian life requires a life of
discipleship, a relational intimacy with Jesus that follows his
example by faith working through love.
· The Holy Spirit lives in Christians, and that reality causes
them to grow up into the image and character of Jesus himself.
· Continuing faith for the Christian life entails remembering
God’s work and taking an active part in the passive work of
transformation.
· Wisdom for the Christian life requires a life of love and prayer
that is built on the wise foundation of Jesus’ teachings.
Key Terms
· Character Formation: God’s work in a Christian to develop
godly, holy, and righteous character traits.
· Fruit of the Spirit: The list of characteristics or attributes of
the Holy Spirit’s work in a Christian’s life, found in Galatians

5:22-23—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; the sense of the term
refers both to the gradual, hidden work of the Holy Spirit to
form Christian character and to the evidence of that work.
· Identity: The true nature of a person; being who a person truly
is; for Christians, identity involves living out of the new self
that was created truly righteous and holy.
· Prayer: A form of communication between God and humanity,
with the implicit belief that God hears and answers human
requests.
· Spiritual Formation: The Holy Spirit’s gradual and ongoing
work to form a Christian into the image of Jesus Christ.
Application of Knowledge
· A person could use the information in this chapter to begin,
revive, assess, or renew his or her own spiritual life. Praying
the Lord’s Prayer with Jesus and practicing the steps of “taking
off the old” and “putting on the new” can become practical
steps for revitalizing one’s faith commitments.
· This chapter can be used to bolster an understanding of what
the Christian life means. Much misunderstanding exists
surrounding what discipleship is, and so the chapter can help
both Christians and others understand what has happened and is
happening in a Christian’s life and experience.
· One can use the themes of this chapter to remember that God
is love and that he is already pleased by a Christian’s faith
rather than through good deeds. The fruit of the Spirit reminds
Christians that God’s work is gradual, and Christians can be
patient and forgiving toward one another.
Reflection Questions
1. From what foundation do you draw wisdom? After reviewing
the chapter, how does this explanation of Christian wisdom
compare to your own pursuit of wisdom?
2. Do you agree or disagree with the premise of the chapter that,
throughout the Christian life, God initiates his work and
humanity responds by faith working through love? Why?
3. After reviewing the fruit of the Spirit, what have you

observed about people who demonstrate these character traits in
their lives?
4. What do you believe about the claim that Christians are truly
righteous and holy, as the chapter summarizes Ephesians 4:24?
Does this match your experience? Why or why not?
5. From the perspective of your worldview, how might you
incorporate the principles of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on
the Mount into your own life, experiences, and interactions with
others?
Resources for Further Reading
· Chapell, B. (2001). Holiness by grace: Living in the joy that is
our strength. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
· Lynch, J., McNicol, B. and Thrall, B. (2011). The cure: What
if God isn’t who you think he is and neither are you. San
Clemente, CA: CrossSection.
· Peterson, E. (2005). Christ plays in ten thousand places: A
conversation on spiritual theology. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans.
References
Bonhoeffer, D. (1995). The cost of discipleship. New York, NY:
Touchstone.
Chapell, B. (2001). Holiness by grace: Living in the joy that is
our strength. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
Guelich, R. (1982). The Sermon on the mount: A foundation for
understanding. Waco, TX: Word Books.
Lewis, C. S. (1952). Mere Christianity. New York, NY:
HarperCollins Publishers.
Lynch, J., McNicol, B. and Thrall, B. (2011). The cure: What if
God isn’t who you think he is and neither are you. San
Clemente, CA: CrossSection.
Peterson, E. (2005). Christ plays in ten thousand places: A
conversation on spiritual theology. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans.
Peterson, E. (2008). Tell it slant: A conversation on the
language of Jesus in his stories and prayers. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans.

Peterson, E. (2010). Practice resurrection: A conversation on
growing up in Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Chapter 11
Toggle navigation
· Chapters
· Introduction: A Starting Point for Wisdom
· Chapter 1: Seeking Wisdom
· Chapter 2: Evaluating Wisely
· Chapter 3: Wisdom in the Beginning
· Chapter 4: Departure from Wisdom
· Chapter 5: The Wisdom and Mercy of God
· Chapter 6: The Wisdom and Power of God
· Chapter 7: The Wisdom of Absolutes
· Chapter 8: Intellectual Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 9: Experiential Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 10: Emotional Obstacles to Wisdom
· Chapter 11: Practical Wisdom
· Chapter 12: Developing Personal Wisdom
· Conclusion: The Call of Wisdom
· Glossary(current)
· Author Biographies
· Help
· C
Chapter 11: Practical WisdomBy Michele Pasley
Chapter 11
Topics
· Introduction
· Restoration: The Fourth Act of the Biblical Story
· The Kingdom of God
· The Wisdom of God’s Kingdom
· The Mission of God
· God’s Mission Becomes Humanity's Mission
· Becoming a Disciple

· Conclusion
· Chapter Review
· References
IntroductionCreation, fall, redemption, restoration: The four
acts of the Christian Story, or metanarrative, explain God’s
work in human history and form an overview of the Christian
worldview. God’s Story did not end in the first century; God
has continued working through the past 2,000 years and God is
still writing the Story today. Just as people in the past had a
part in the Story, so too do people today. Just as people in the
past had the option to choose to live wisely, today people have
that choice as well. The choice to live wisely is not only a
choice for individuals, but for whole communities of people.
Chapters 11 and 12 will center on restoration, the fourth act of
the Story, focusing on God’s continuing work of restoring
broken people, communities, and eventually, all of creation, so
that they are brought to wholeness characterized by God’s love,
justice, beauty, and wisdom.
Restoration: The Fourth Act of the Biblical Story
The biblical story began with God’s love, grace, creativity, and
wisdom overflowing in the ordered work of creation,
culminating in the creation of human beings (Genesis 1). God,
in his wisdom, created man and woman to be co-rulers over
creation, remaining faithful to the love, justice, beauty, design,
and order that God initiated from the very beginning (Genesis
1:26-30). However, humanity failed to remain faithful to the
wisdom of God’s design for creation, and instead, chose to do
things their own way, departing from wisdom by turning away
from God through disobedience. Humanity fell and began to live
under the curse of sin (Genesis 3). Instead of a beautiful
creation operating under the fullness of love and justice,
brokenness, pain, and suffering entered the world. Rather than
wisely caring for the created world as partners, sin fractured the
relationship between men and women and resulted in power
struggles and the domination of one sex over another (Genesis
3). The choice to depart from wisdom and choose sin caused

brokenness then, and it causes brokenness today; however,
brokenness does not have the last word. Out of his great love,
God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world. Through
his death and resurrection, Jesus provided redemption from sin
and restoration from brokenness, both for individuals and for
the whole of creation (Romans 5; Colossians 1:19-20; Hebrews
8-10; 1 John 4:9-10). The world is being set right; things broken
by the curse of sin and departure from wisdom are being
overturned and restored. Men and women no longer have to live
with one dominating the other. People can now live free from
the power of sin and destruction. There is hope that one day
everything will be full of goodness again and creation will be
realigned to the wisdom of God’s design. The process has begun
and will continue until the eventual restoration of all things,
when everything is made new—new heavens, new earth, and
new bodies for people (Revelation 21-22).
Today, the world still bears the scars and brokenness of
humanity’s choice of sin instead of wisdom and obedience, but
sin no longer has the power it once did. Jesus conquered sin and
death through his sacrificial death and the power of his
resurrection, and now he is setting everything right. Jesus came
proclaiming the reality of God’s kingdom and inviting people to
life within the kingdom where Jesus the King rules with love,
grace, mercy, justice, and wisdom. The invitation to life in the
kingdom is extended to all people. Life in the kingdom is
characterized not by sin, brokenness, and foolishness, but by
healing, wholeness, and wisdom. God invites all people to be
changed, redeemed, and restored. As discussed in Chapter 5,
Jesus paid the penalty for people’s sin with his sacrifice on the
cross, redeeming them from the bondage of sin to freedom and
new life. Freed from sin to new life, Jesus restores people,
healing the scars of sin and brokenness, and making them new.
They become restored to wholeness and are able to live lives
marked by an abundance of grace and love. The topic of
restoration, God making people whole, began in Chapter 6, but
will continue in Chapters 11 and 12. God’s Story is not

finished. It is still lived out day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and
minute-by-minute. People today have a place in the Story.
This chapter will explore how people today fit within the fourth
act of God’s Story, and what it means for people, as individuals
and communities, to live wisely. The chapter begins with a
discussion of the overarching theme of the Kingdom of God,
which was introduced previously in Chapters 3 and 5, and
moves into a discussion of what wisdom means within the
kingdom. The chapter then moves on to a discussion of God’s
mission to redeem people, free them from sin and brokenness,
and then restore them to wholeness. This is followed by an
explanation of how people have the choice to be a part of God’s
mission, and ends with a discussion of what it means to be a
disciple of Jesus. These major sections offer invitations for
people to consider how they might choose to live with practical
wisdom today.
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is central to Jesus’ message of hope,
wholeness, and wisdom, but throughout history, people have
often used the term in ways that Jesus never intended. While the
Kingdom of God is crucial to God’s story of restoration, it is
one of the most misunderstood and misused concepts in history.
Within the Christian worldview, living according to the values
of the kingdom is living according to the practical wisdom of
God’s design for humanity and the rest of his creation. Thus, it
is important to understand what Jesus meant by the term
Kingdom of God and what it means to live in the Kingdom of
God today.
When Jesus began his public ministry, he came teaching about
God's kingdom, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God
is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15 English
Standard Version). Another way of translating Jesus’ message is
to say “… the kingdom of God has come near…” (Mark 1:15,
New International Version). Through Jesus, God came near to
people. Jesus, who was fully God, became fully human and
walked among people in a particular time and place. He fully

embodied the name prophesied centuries earlier by the prophet
Isaiah (7:14, ESV), Immanuel, which means “God with us.”
Jesus, the king of the kingdom was not distant, but had come
near. As he came, he called the people to believe the good news
that God was with them and the broken world would be
restored. The invitation he extended to people in the past is still
an invitation to people today: have a change of mind and choose
to move from living in the kingdom of this world to living in
the Kingdom of God. Move from brokenness to wholeness.
Move from despair to hope. Move from slavery to freedom.
Move from sin to freedom. Move from death to life.
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent
and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15)
The idea of a kingdom can seem foreign to Westerners in the
twenty-first century, but to Jesus’ original hearers in first-
century Palestine, the concept was not alien at all. In the first
century, people lived under the rule of kings and emperors. In
the small country of Israel, the people were ruled by a king who
had been appointed by the Roman emperor. Ultimately, Rome
was the ruling power, and since its conquest of Israel, the
Jewish people had longed for freedom. Revolts had been
common since the second century B.C. as the Jews tried to
throw off the rule of their captors and reestablish an
independent kingdom. When Jesus arrived on the scene, people
were expecting the Messiah who had been promised through the
Old Testament to deliver them from Roman rule (Matthew 21:1-
11; Acts 1:6).
Indeed, Jesus did come to set people free and to usher them into
his kingdom, but his kingdom did not look like what they
expected. Rather than freeing people from Rome, he freed
people from sin. God’s sovereign, saving rule of generous love
had come to take back the world that had been captured by evil,
corruption, and decay (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014).
Whether people lived as citizens in Rome or slaves in Israel, as
subjects of God’s kingdom, they could be free from sin and the
powers that had held them in spiritual, emotional, and relational

bondage. The kingdom in which Jesus is king is not and has
never been restricted by geography; the kingdom is not a place,
but the “fact that God rules” (Wright, 1999, p. 6). God is
present and actively reigning in the world (Willard, 2014) and
everyone and everything that by choice or by nature follows the
principles of his rule is within his kingdom (Willard, 1998).
People anywhere can choose to live under the presence, rule,
and influence of God, embracing freedom from the power of sin
and a life marked by love, justice, beauty, grace, and wisdom.
Over the past 2,000 years, people have repeatedly tried to force
the Kingdom of God into a physical kingdom. For example, in
313 A.D. the Roman emperor Constantine issued an edict
declaring that Christianity was legal, which set the stage for its
later adoption as the official religion of the empire. When
Christianity became a state religion placed under the control of
human rulers, the message of Jesus became diluted and
distorted, and in some cases, people began to be Christian in
name only. During the Middle Ages, crusaders from Europe cut
a path of destruction through the ancient Near East, erroneously
assuming that God’s kingdom should be a physical kingdom
under their control, abusing people through their
misunderstanding and misuse of the term Kingdom of God. At
times, people in Europe and North America have tried to
combine the state and the church in an attempt to form the
Kingdom of God in their own political image. These
misunderstandings of the Kingdom of God have caused turmoil,
suffering, and destruction for many people throughout the
centuries and have caused people to reject the true kingdom
because of the impact of false kingdoms.
The Wisdom of God’s Kingdom
The wisdom of God’s kingdom is often perceived as foolishness
to the world (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) because the values of the
kingdom, and the definition of wisdom within the kingdom,
differ from the way the broken world works. In the Kingdom of
God, Jesus is king of an upside-down kingdom in which the first
will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 19:20; Matthew

20:16). Greatness in God’s kingdom is not defined by power,
but by service (Mark 10:42-45; John 13:1-20). In God’s
kingdom, people who may be marginalized elsewhere, are
blessed with God’s favor and welcomed into a place of
belonging (Matthew 5:3-11; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 7:36-50; John
4). In God’s kingdom, people lose their life to save it (Matthew
10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35). More unusual still is the fact that in
Jesus’ kingdom the king himself does not call the people to do
anything he has not already done on their behalf. Jesus, the
king, gave up his privileges and status to serve people.
… Christ Jesus… though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8).
Jesus gave up his status in order to become human. As a human,
he served. Jesus served others, washing their feet, healing their
bodies, casting out demons, and giving them new life.
Ultimately, he served by his sacrifice on the cross, setting
humanity free from the power of sin and death and establishing
a new way of life. In this new way of life, this new kind of
kingdom, not only can people live under his rule of freedom,
grace, and wholeness, but also can serve like the king by
extending the wisdom of his kingdom to the world, bringing
hope and healing to people and communities. When followers of
Jesus serve their families, neighbors, coworkers, and
communities, they advance the kingdom. When followers of
Christ form relationships with marginalized people and
advocate for justice on their behalf, they announce the kingdom.
When bosses who serve Jesus lead their employees by serving
them, they bring the kingdom. When hungry people are fed in
the name of Jesus, the kingdom comes. When kingdom citizens
serve like Jesus served, love like Jesus loved, and give like
Jesus gave, God’s kingdom reigns and his will is done on earth
just as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

The Kingdom of God is here. Jesus is near. There is still more
to come, though. The Kingdom of God is both already and not
yet. Life in the kingdom has been initiated, but not fully
realized. Ultimately, Jesus will return, and the restoration of
this world to the wisdom of God’s design will be complete.
Jesus will give people new bodies; heaven and earth will come
together as a new heaven and a new earth. The Kingdom of God
will reign completely as God dwells with people and reigns with
justice, grace, mercy, wisdom, and beauty. Everything will be
fully made right.
On Earth as It Is in Heaven
A few years ago, the people of a church in the center of
Phoenix, Arizona recognized that the neighborhood around the
church had changed, and there was a need for a broken
community to be healed. The people of the church wanted to
live out God’s wisdom and bring the kingdom to their broken
neighborhood. They started by observing the brokenness around
them.
As they looked at their community, they saw that terrified
refugees from war torn countries were flocking to the
neighborhood. In this neighborhood's schools, 100% of the
children qualified for free breakfast and lunch programs and
often had nothing to eat over the weekends. Families were being
torn apart as parents were deported and children remained
behind with distant relatives. Sex trafficking and prostitution
was happening on the sidewalk next to the church. A drug ring
was operating out of the house three doors down from the
church. People in the neighborhood were trapped in poverty
without the basic reading and writing skills needed to get jobs.
People were in pain and living in despair, but God’s kingdom is
about healing and wholeness. The kingdom is about
restructuring lives and communities to match the practical
wisdom of God’s design for his creation. So, the people in the
church began living out the kingdom by building relationships
with people in the neighborhood to share the love of Jesus.
They partnered with the schools and started offering weekend

breakfast to kids and families, sitting down together at the table
and becoming friends. They opened food and clothing banks,
praying with people and sharing the kingdom message of
healing through Jesus at the same time they shared food and
clothes. In order to see people receive the skills needed to get
jobs and provide for their families, the church invited health
agencies, GED programs, and early childhood training classes to
be a part of their community. They invited people to be a part of
the church family and to meet Jesus, who is the one to bring
complete healing when lives are broken.
Coming to the church for a job program, a young woman named
Andrea was overwhelmed by the acceptance and love offered by
the people. After a year of working with the job program, she
chose a life with Jesus for herself. With tears running down her
face, she told a group of new friends from the church, “I didn’t
know people like this existed; I never knew love like this
existed.” Life in that church community became messy,
unpredictable, and alive with the healing presence of Jesus. The
kingdom had come.
Angled Mirrors
Apart from the occasional funhouse mirrors that distort images
of their subjects, mirrors reflect reality. Most of the time,
people look into a mirror to understand what something really
looks like. When people look straight into a mirror, their own
image is reflected back to them; however, when a mirror is
angled, it reflects something above, below, or to the side.
Followers of Christ are to be mirrors, angled in such a way that
they reflect the image of God. They are to reflect the love and
justice of God into the world (N.T. Wright, lecture, April 29,
2014). If people believe that the kingdom is both already and
not yet, if they believe that Jesus is setting everything right and
will make everything new one day, then they will point ahead to
the beauty of the new creation with art that reflects the beauty
of a glorious Creator. The light of Jesus that shines through
them will expose practices that strip people of value and will

reflect God’s love and justice in a world being set right (N.T.
Wright, lecture, April 29, 2014). They will be angled mirrors
reflecting God’s love, justice, and beauty to the world through
their creativity and hope.
The Mission of God
Simon Bening, Christ Washing the Apostles’ Feet, c. 1525-
1530. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California.
Making everything right is not something that happens without
intention. As discussed in Chapter 3, God was intentional about
creating the world with order, and he is intentional about
restoring it so that it aligns once again with the wisdom of his
design. God is on a mission. The mission of God is to restore a
world broken by sin, and this mission flows out of his character.
God is a self-sending God whose immense and sacrificial love is
the overarching characteristic of his mission of redemption and
restoration for the world. Out of his character of love, God
sends himself to the world. God’s very nature is one of sending
himself, always “going, coming, sending in mission… sending
and being sent is fundamental to who God is and what God does
(they are one and the same)” (Fitch & Holsclaw, 2013b, p. 27).
God sent Jesus to the world, not to condemn the world but to
save the world (John 3:16-17). God’s sending did not stop with
Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension; God’s
sending continues in the Father and Son sending the Holy Spirit
as “an extension of the Son’s presence through the Church—the
Body of Christ” (Fitch & Holsclaw, 2013a, p. 396). The people
of the church participate in the sending mission of Jesus when
they share God’s love and healing with the world through the
power of the Holy Spirit (Bosch, 1991 as cited by Guder, 1998;
Marshall, 2013).
Missio Dei
God himself is a self-sending God, a missionary God, who does
not wait for people to come to him or for the world to be
restored. Instead, God actively goes to the world and to
individuals, because that is who he is by nature. The theological

point that mission is an attribute of God is called missio Dei.
Missio Dei, which means "mission of God" or "sending of God"
is rooted in an understanding of the essential nature of the
Trinity that results in the action of mission. God sent himself to
the world through Jesus Christ. God the Father and God the Son
sent the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit send the church into the world, empowered by the
Holy Spirit to carry forth God’s mission of salvation and
healing to the broken world (Bosch, 1991, as cited in Laing,
2009; Bosch, 1991, as cited by Guder, 2005). The theology of
missio Dei has implications for Christ followers and the church
today. “The church exists because God has an ongoing mission
to the world … the church is privileged to serve the purposes of
God” (Laing, 2009, p. 92).
God’s mission is characterized by sending, and its corollary,
serving. Jesus explained that he had not come to bring healing
and wholeness to the world through traditional power structures,
but to give his life as a sacrifice. As king and Lord, Jesus did
not come to be served, but to serve and to offer his very life for
the salvation of the world. At one point during Jesus’ earthly
ministry, the mother of his disciples James and John came to
him and asked for her sons to sit at Jesus' right and left hand in
his kingdom. Operating out of values of the broken world,
rather than the wisdom of the kingdom, she lobbied for her sons
to be placed in positions of power. The other disciples were
indignant that they were left out of the power play, but Jesus
stepped in and corrected them all. He said:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so
among you. But whoever would be great among you must be
your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be
your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew
20:25-28).
The night before Jesus served by giving his life, he served by
washing feet. In first-century Palestine, it was customary for the

host of a meal to provide a servant to wash the feet of the
guests. In a pedestrian society with dirt roads used by both
people and animals, feet were often caked with dirt, waste,
weeds, and mud. When guests arrived for a meal, a servant
would perform the lowly task of washing feet and preparing
them to dine together. Once again, Jesus turned expectations
upside down. When the disciples gathered in the upper room for
the Last Supper, Jesus, instead of a servant, wrapped a towel
around his waist and washed the feet of each disciple, one by
one. He took the role of servant, taking dirty feet in his hands,
washing them clean, showing once again that he had not come
to be served, but to serve. In the simple act of washing feet, he
foreshadowed the way he would cleanse them from sin by his
sacrifice on the cross. When he finished washing their feet, he
told the disciples that just as he had served, they should serve.
The same holds true for Jesus’ followers today: They are called
to serve.
Through Jesus’ sacrifice, he made a way for individuals to be
saved from sin and death and for the whole world to be set
right. Individuals are justified not only so they can experience
personal salvation and eternal life, but also so they can be sent
as God’s agents of healing in the world by serving. Simply put,
people are justified so that they can do justice (N.T. Wright,
lecture, April 29, 2014; Keller, 2010).
Injustice happens when people abuse power. Injustice can
happen when people place themselves at the center of the world.
In a world where people focus on themselves first, their own
wants, needs, and values take precedent over the value, worth,
and needs of others. In God’s kingdom, in which God is at the
center, the ethics of humility, service, and the inherent worth of
people is considered the way to live wisely.
Injustice can result from lack—lack of humility, lack of love,
lack of grace, and lack of mercy. God does not lack. God’s love
is so full it overflows. It spilled over into a beautiful creation.
It overflowed by sending Jesus. It is poured out through the
power and presence of the Holy Spirit sent to continue the

mission of Jesus in the world. When God’s people are filled
with the overflowing love of God, recognizing that they are
saved by his love and grace, they, too, become overflowing
agents of God’s love and do justice (Keller, 2010).
From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus declared that he had
come to enact justice by taking good news to the poor,
liberating captives, giving sight to the blind, and setting the
oppressed free (Luke 4:18-22). When crowds of people who
were sick, diseased, in pain, and oppressed came to Jesus he
healed them (Matthew 4:23-25). He taught these very crowds of
people living under the oppression of injustice that the Kingdom
of God was available to them (Matthew 5:1-12). For people who
thought they were outside the reach of God’s kingdom because
they were on the edges of society, this was good news indeed.
God’s kingdom was not distant; it had come near, and they were
invited.
Called to continue serving the poor, feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked, and caring for the widow, orphan, and alien,
followers of Jesus today are to continue his mission to set the
world right and establish justice. They are called to participate
in God’s mission to restore his creation according to the
wisdom of the Creator’s design. They are sent to be salt and
light (Matthew 5:13-16), carrying the message of Jesus to a
hurting world, serving as Jesus served, and proclaiming the
good news of the kingdom.
Called to Serve
A woman named Ann was gripped by God’s gift of grace that
had delivered her from an oppressive addiction. She, in turn,
saw other oppressed people through the eyes of God’s grace and
knew that God was calling her to work for justice, freeing
people from oppression, both in North America and around the
world. She changed her career path and now leads organizations
that care for immigrants and refugees and that work toward
fostering peace in areas of conflict around the world. God’s
grace in her life helped her to see other people through the eyes
of grace. Justice flowing from love and grace is a stark contrast

to injustice fueled by lack, hate, and abusive power.
God’s Mission Becomes Humanity's Mission
The human heart longs for purpose, meaning, and mission. Long
before Mission: Impossible was a movie franchise, it was a
television series, first from 1966 to 1973 and again from 1988
to 1990. The idea of having a mission resonates with people at
their deepest level and resurfaces in popular culture again and
again. Many people would secretly love to get that mysterious
summons that begins, “Your mission …, should you choose to
accept it” (Geller, 1966-1973).
Although people today normally do not get an invitation for a
mission on a self-destructing device, the offer to partner with
God in his mission is real and is for regular people. The night
before Jesus died, he prayed for his current and future
followers. As he talked with the Father, he acknowledged the
sending nature of the mission that would flow from him to his
followers. He said to the Father, “As you sent me into the
world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Jesus
did not call his followers to be isolated and elitist; he sent his
followers out to the world to share the message that God’s
kingdom had come near. They had a mission to complete. The
mission of God continues as his followers do for the world what
Jesus did (Wright, 1994, p. 50). His followers continue to carry
forward God’s mission when they witness to God’s love for
individuals and the whole of creation and live out the reality of
God’s healing action of restoring brokenness within people and
communities, coming together under the presence, rule, and
influence of God.
God’s call to ordinary people to be his witness in the world is
evident throughout the Bible. God called people to be witnesses
to demonstrate wise living by showing others how to know and
worship him (Shenk, 2005). As noted in Chapter 3, God began
by calling one family—the family of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).
This call of one family grew to the call of the whole people of
Israel (Exodus 19:3-6). Throughout biblical history, the people
of Israel sometimes got their role as witnesses of God’s

goodness right, and sometimes they failed in this role because
they turned away from God and worshiped the idols of their
neighbors or did things their own way rather than God’s wise
way. Yet, even during the times when the people as a whole
missed their call, there were still individuals who served God
and witnessed to his goodness and justice. When ancient Israel
was suffering the consequence of disobedience to God and
being oppressed by the Canaanites, he raised up Deborah as a
judge to lead the people to freedom and rest (Judges 5-6). When
most people had turned from God to worship the Canaanite
idols, the prophets Elijah and Elisha stood firm and witnessed to
God’s faithfulness in the midst of a corrupt society (1 Kings 17-
2 Kings 13:20). When the people’s unfaithfulness led to them
being conquered first by the Assyrians and then the
Babylonians, Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego stood up to foreign power and witnessed to God’s
saving grace and true power (Daniel 1-6). When Persia overtook
the Babylonian empire, Esther advocated for justice and the
lives of people targeted for genocide (Esther 1-10). When the
Persians sent the people of Israel home from captivity, Ezra and
Nehemiah were shining witnesses of God’s heart for holiness
and restoration in the midst of brokenness and desolation (Ezra
1-10, Nehemiah 1-13). The Old Testament is full of stories of
people who were God’s witness in the world. God consistently
chose to share his message of healing with the world through
ordinary people.
Jesus carried on God’s plan of calling ordinary people to carry
God’s message. The Kingdom of God would be spread by the
witness of ordinary people who had chosen to be subjects of the
king and live their lives according to the practical wisdom
found in the values of the kingdom. When Jesus met with his
disciples after his resurrection, he called them to be sent as he
had been sent. He said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has
sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). He sent them
and empowered them with the gift of the Holy Spirit. They were
not sent to proclaim the kingdom out of their own strength, but

through the power of the Holy Spirit. Although they did not
understand at the time, when Jesus spoke with them the night
before he died, Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit would
enable them to be God’s witnesses, giving them truth and
authority from Jesus (John 16:13).
Find Your Purpose
You have purpose. You have a mission. Sometimes it may seem
like you may just be spinning your wheels waiting for life to
happen, but really, you have a purpose and a mission. Your
contributions matter. Think about things that make you, you.
What are your strengths? What are you passionate about? When
do you feel fully alive? How have your life experiences shaped
you and given you specific insight? When do you become so
engrossed in something that you lose all track of time? When do
you feel God’s pleasure? How might you work wisely to restore
God’s original intent of order and design to the world?
The movie Chariots of Fire (Fayed & Puttnam, 1981) told the
story of two Olympic Runners in the 1924 Olympics. Eric
Liddell was a Scottish runner who was also a missionary to
China. While he knew he had a mission to share the message of
God as a preacher, he knew that running was part of his mission
as well. When his sister demeaned his running as less worthy
than his missionary work, he explained to her that both pursuits
were callings from God; one calling was not more worthy than
the other. He said, “I believe that God made me for a purpose—
for China. But he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his
pleasure. To give it up would be to hold him in contempt.” God
calls people to different vocations; a call from God to serve
others through designing sound bridges, reflecting God’s beauty
through the arts, or teaching children to read is not less worthy
than a call to be a pastor or missionary. God calls people to
serve him and serve the world through many ways and means.
Frederick Buechner, author, pastor, and theologian, said that a
good way to find your purpose, to know what mission God is
calling you to, is to discern the work “that you most need to do

and that the world most needs to have done” (2013, para. 4). He
explained that if you enjoy your work, but it is meaningless,
then you have probably not found your purpose. Conversely, if
you are doing work that is meaningful for the world but you are
miserable doing it you have not found your purpose either. He
sums up the idea by saying, “The place where God calls you to
is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep
hunger meet” (Buechner, 2013, para. 5).
Karen had a meaningful job managing a family practice
physician’s office. Every day she helped people receive the
medical care they needed. Her colleagues at the practice found
the job fulfilling and satisfying. She did not. She enjoyed her
coworkers and the patients, but there was no deep gladness in
her heart. She did not look forward to going to work. This all
changed when she completed a second degree and changed
careers to be a teacher. She suddenly looked forward to going to
work each day. When she saw the lights come on in students’
eyes when they had learned from her teaching, she knew that
she had found her purpose and was fulfilling her mission. Her
deep gladness had met the world’s hunger. How about you?
Where is your deep gladness ready to meet the world’s deep
hunger?
After his resurrection, Jesus repeated the call to the disciples.
He emphasized that they were called to be sent to all people in
order to help people become disciples, followers of Jesus. As
they were shaped by the mission, they were to carry it forward
so that others could know the king who set people free and is
setting the world right. Jesus said to his disciples:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew
28:19-20).
The call to go and make disciples was not restricted to the
people gathered on a hillside in Galilee that day. That call is for
all people at all times in all places who follow Jesus. The self-

sending God continues to send himself to the world through his
people who come together as the church.
Coming together as the church can be one of the biggest hurdles
of the twenty-first century, particularly in Western cultures.
While technology has enabled people worldwide to come
together more easily than ever before, individualism, rather than
community, is the hallmark of much of society. God’s plan,
demonstrated throughout the New Testament, was that followers
would come together in communities to worship, to pray, to
share in the Lord’s table, and to care for one another (Acts
2:42) in order to be formed into the likeness of Christ and be
his ambassadors to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
Spreading the Kingdom of God
A young lady named Rebecca chose to join a ministry focused
on prayer. For several months, she dedicated herself to prayer
and praying for people around the world. After months of
prayer, she felt a call to participate in God’s mission by going
to a country where the people live in poverty and have little
freedom. She joined 10 other followers of Christ, and, as a
team, they were sent out to join a community half way around
the world. They went to language school, learned to cook and
eat the food of their new country, and made friends with their
new neighbors. For part of each day, they gathered together to
pray for ways to share the hope of Jesus with people. After they
had been part of their new neighborhood for a year, the
teenagers in the neighborhood began asking them questions
about Jesus. Some chose to become followers of Jesus. This was
risky. For Rebecca and the team, the work they were doing put
them at risk of being arrested, imprisoned, or deported. Local
people who came to know Jesus risked arrest, imprisonment,
being cut off from their families and friends, and perhaps even
killed for their faith. In spite of the risk, Rebecca and her team
chose to hear the call to spread the healing of God’s kingdom to
oppressed people, and put down roots in their new country in
order to be faithful to the call.
Church and Community

Brian was a teacher and a coach in an urban middle school. He
recognized that his students lacked healthy role models and that
their families not only lacked resources, but hope. He was not
content with the status quo. Although he already had a master’s
degree in education, he earned a second master’s degree in
urban youth ministry so that he would have more tools and
resources to communicate effectively with his students. He
gathered adults from his church to hold sports tournaments with
the kids on Saturdays so that the kids would spend time hanging
out with healthy role models. As the kids began to see that these
adults liked spending time with them, the kids began asking
them questions about life and family, sex and money, and
sometimes about Jesus. After a few months, the principal of this
public school noticed such a dramatic difference in the
demeanor of the students that she invited the people from
Brian’s church to be on campus any time before or after school,
at lunch, and during sports practices. As people gathered around
the mission to serve and share the hope of Jesus, the kingdom
came and changed that place of despair into a place of light.
Becoming a Disciple
The invitation to become a disciple of Jesus is an open
invitation. God’s work to free people from sin and bring
wholeness to their lives is not just part of a theological story; it
is an offer for people to accept Jesus’ sacrifice as the payment
for their sin, and then grow in relationship with Jesus, becoming
more and more like him, adopting his wisdom and living as a
citizen of his kingdom. The offer is free. There are no
exclusions—it is open to all. Becoming a follower of Christ is
not something that is earned, but an invitation that is accepted.
Jesus offers forgiveness and freedom from sin and brokenness
as a free gift of grace. The gift is accepted by people through
faith. Chapter 6 discussed the topic of faith as an orientation of
the human heart that motivates people to act on what they know
and affirm. Coming to faith in Jesus is not something that is
done blindly or without thought. Someone is not a Christian
because they live in a particular place, or because their parents

are Christians, or even because they go to church. Becoming a
Christian, a follower of Christ, is a decision and an action to
change the orientation of the heart. As people come to know,
understand, and believe Jesus’ offer of salvation, they can
decide to accept Jesus’ gift and receive forgiveness for sin, then
grow in relationship with him. To begin a relationship with
Jesus, someone simply needs to say he or she accepts Jesus'
offer, receive his forgiveness for sin, and be ready to begin a
new relationship with him. Being a follower of Christ is not
about assenting to a list of propositions; it is about a living
relationship with the King of the kingdom.
Making a decision to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation is the
first step to becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus and
living in a vibrant relationship with him. After taking that step,
one begins the process of growing to be more and more like
Jesus, living more and more wisely, and becoming someone who
reflects Jesus’ love, justice, grace, beauty, and wisdom to the
world. This process of growing is often called spiritual
formation or discipleship. The ongoing process of discipleship
will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 12. To start growing
in the discipleship process, a follower of Christ begins by
orienting his or her heart and mind toward being a disciple.
In Jesus’ day, when a rabbi invited someone to be his disciple,
that person listened and learned from the rabbi’s teaching,
which was known as sitting at the rabbi’s feet. The disciple
followed the rabbi everywhere, and modeled his life after the
rabbi’s. Wherever the rabbi went, and whatever the rabbi did,
his disciple went and learned to do. Eventually, the disciple
became just like the rabbi. When Jesus gave his followers the
mission of going to spread the good news of the kingdom, he
told them to make disciples and teach those disciples to do
everything Jesus had taught them (Matthew 28:19-20). His
instruction did not say to just go and tell people about Jesus,
but to help them actually become disciples so that they would
be able to do everything Jesus taught (Willard, 2014). There is a
difference between being a Christian in name, and being a

Christian in practice. Following Jesus, learning to do everything
he said, means becoming a disciple.
Being a disciple has been likened to being an apprentice or a
student (Willard, 1998) of Jesus. In terms of the trades, an
apprentice commits to being with and learning from someone
who has mastered a craft in order to be able to do become as
skilled at the craft as the master craftsman. When people choose
to become apprentices, or disciples, of Jesus, they choose to be
with him, “by choice and by grace, learning from him how to
live in the kingdom of God” (Willard, 1998, p. 283). The choice
to be a disciple is a choice that impacts all facets of life because
living in the kingdom is a way of living that encompasses all of
who a person is and everything a person does. Being a disciple
is not something that is only done on Sundays at church, but
every day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute as an integrated way
of life. Becoming a disciple means to learn to increasingly “live
like Jesus lived, love like Jesus loved, to leave behind what
Jesus left behind” (Stetzer & Putman, 2006, p. 76). Being a
disciple involves choice, commitment, and intentionality.
Living like Jesus does not generally happen immediately; it
usually is a process of growing, learning, and becoming.
What’s in a Name?
The term nominal Christian means someone who self-identifies
as Christian, but is Christian in name only; the person’s actual
beliefs, actions, and orientation of the heart do not flow from a
relationship with Jesus. The term Sunday Christian reflects this
idea as well. Sunday Christians may go to church and say and
do one thing at church, but their actions the rest of the week do
not match their Sunday persona.
Jesus used a Greek term to describe the religious leaders of his
day who were focused more on their outward religiosity than on
how their heart was oriented toward God. The term Jesus used is
still in use today: hypocrite. In Jesus’ day, it was a Greek
theater term describing actors who wore masks to cover their
real identity in order to portray a character. They were
pretenders. When Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites

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