Disciples Global Network

The suffering and death of Jesus provide the pattern for how his disciples must live in this fallen world, and the measuring rod for judging spirituality. Whether examining anyone’s wisdom, teachings, conduct, or supernatural deeds, the Cross of Christ is the dividing line between truth and falsehood. No man can know God or comprehend His ways and words apart from the imperative of “ Christ crucified .” God has revealed Himself in the Crucified Messiah.

The reality of persecution raises important questions. How should disciples of Jesus react, especially when persecuted by the State? Is resorting to anger or acts of civil disobedience appropriate, or should they instead emulate examples from the life of Christ? In his teachings, he warned all men who decided to follow him to expect “ tribulation ,” and he summoned them to follow his path (“ If they persecuted me, so they will persecute you ”).

Fulfillment is a prominent theme in the  Gospel of Matthew . With the arrival of Israel’s Messiah, the time of fulfillment commenced. But with his advent, what were the implications for the Law? In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provided clear answers. He did not come to adjudicate the interpretive disputes between competing Jewish sects over the details of the Law, or to validate which oral traditions were correct, but instead, to fulfill the “ Law and the Prophets .”

Paul concludes his first  Letter to the Thessalonians  with a series of exhortations calling on the disciples of Jesus to pursue righteous living in the interim between their conversion and his “ arrival ” from heaven. He ends by summoning the congregation to pursue complete sanctification, an exhortation with verbal links to the preceding sections of the Letter.

The biblical faith is forward-looking and foundational to its doctrine of salvation is the future resurrection of the righteous dead. That event will also mark the arrival of the New Creation. The New Testament links this to two events. First, the past Resurrection of Jesus. Second, his future arrival at the end of the age. Our salvation remains incomplete without our resurrection.