This article is a continuation of a series from “Teaching with Truth” about the purpose and power of Christian education and making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Can an unbeliever, a person who is not a Christian, be discipled? Biblically and basically speaking, the answer is no. A person must be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, before they can be discipled. In Matthew 28:19, when the resurrected Jesus Christ commanded His disciples to “Go and make disciples,” it was to make disciples through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is evangelism. We also see the Great Commission of Christ in Mark 16:15, when He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Evangelism or evangelizing is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers, while discipling is teaching Biblical truth and precepts to believers helping them grow in Christ. Christ commands us to proclaim the gospel and evangelize so that unbelievers will be convicted of their sin, repent, believe in Jesus Christ, and become part of the family of God as children of God (1 John 3:1). Then, when a person becomes a Christian – a disciple of Jesus Christ – he or she can be discipled and grow in the grace, love, truth, and wisdom of Christ through God’s Holy Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Evangelizing Lost Sinners – In the first chapter of Matthew, God’s Word says:
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. So this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:21-23).
God’s plan from before the creation of the world and foretold by God through His prophets was that He would send forth His Son, the Messiah, to redeem and reconcile lost sinners to Himself. The Messiah was Jesus Christ our Lord, “God with us,” who came to “save His people,” those who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior. This has always been God’s redemptive plan and it continues today as Christians evangelize (proclaim the gospel) to lost sinners, and it will continue until the second coming of Christ when He returns for His people to live with Him in eternity.
God reaches a lost world through His people, those who believe in Him and obey His Word. This was the command of Jesus Christ to His first disciples and handed down through the church from generation to generation. Listen to the words of Christ in the Gospel of Luke:
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
Discipling Redeemed Sinners – Once a person believes in Jesus Christ and His gospel, that Christ came to save His people by living a sinless life, suffered and died on the cross for our sins, resurrected on the third day to defeat sin and death, and that believers may be justified by grace through faith in Christ our Lord and through nothing we can accomplish on our own, then God commands that redeemed sinner to grow through God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is when discipling takes place and it is God’s will and plan for discipling to be part of the church. In other words, Christians (disciples of Jesus Christ) teaching and discipling other disciples about how to live the Christian life and grow to maturity in Christ through God’s Word.
Listen again to Matthew Chapter 28, the Great Commission for the Church and all Christians:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 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 things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
May God bless you with His grace, love, and truth!