Introduction

This week's reading is the introduction. Again, we are studying a phenomenal book, "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard. The following excerpts from the introduction are in blue italics. My commentary is sandwiched between the excerpts. Please let me know your thoughts. 

My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him.

I believe this is completely necessary in today’s world. It’s especially striking with the interaction of Christians in popular culture. On the one hand we have some not exactly behaving like Jesus and spouting condemnation at unbelievers. On the other, critics are quick to condemn Christians for not behaving like their picture of Jesus, accepting of all behavior as equally valid. It can be so helpful to return to the Bible and study Jesus and his message so that we can actually do what He said and work to become like Him.

Dogma is what you have to believe, whether you believe it or not. And law is what you must do, whether it is good for you or not… Jesus and his words never belonged to the categories of dogma or law, and to read them as if they did is simply to miss them… He himself described his words as “spirit and life” (John 6:63).

The words of Jesus are powerful. He is fully God and fully man. When dealing with the creator of the world, to view anything He has to say as irrelevant or as a mere obligation is to not understand whom we are dealing with.

Jesus and his early associates over-whelmed the ancient world because they brought into it a stream of life at its deepest, along with the best information possible on the most important matters… The people initially impacted by that message generally concluded that they would be fools to disregard it. That was the basis of their conversion.

For some, this is not a revelation. For others, this is quite a concept. If you really believe what you say you believe, then following Jesus is the best possible way to live your life.

You will find few scholars or leaders in Christian circles who deny we are supposed to make disciples or apprentices to Jesus and teach them to do all things that Jesus said… We just don’t do it.

Dallas has written a whole book on this topic called “The Great Omission”. We’re not called to make converts, but disciples. After we accept Jesus as our savior, we are to be on a mission to be like Him – not to just stop where He found us.

In fact, it [the reason we aren’t making disciples] lies much deeper than anything we might appropriately feel guilty about. For it is not, truly, a matter of anything we do or don’t do. It is a matter of how we cannot but think and act, given the context of our mental and spiritual formation. So any significant change can come only by breaking the stranglehold of the ideas and concepts that automatically shunt aside Jesus, “the Prince of Life,” when questions of concrete mastery of our life arise.

This is a central point to the book. We need to re-examine our beliefs – in practice. Often what we say we believe isn’t what we really believe. In other words, our actions don’t line up with what we say we believe. By re-examining our view of Jesus and His instructions for us, we can move towards the end goal of being a mature believer.

More than any other single things, in any case, the practical irrelevance of actual obedience to Christ accounts for the weakened effect of Christianity in the world today, with its increasing tendency to emphasize political and social action as the primary way to serve God. It also accounts for the practical irrelevance of Christian faith to individual character development and overall personal sanity and well-being.

Grace is more than a cover up for our shortcomings. It is an empowerment to overcome them. If we believe Jesus meant what He said, then we have to believe that He will empower us to do it.

How life-giving it would be if their [individual Christian’s] understanding of the gospel allowed them simply to reply, “I will do them [teachings of Jesus]! I will find out how. I will devote my life to it! This is the best life strategy I have ever heard of!” and then go off to their fellowship and its teachers, and into their daily life, to learn how to live in his kingdom as Jesus indicated was best.

If this isn’t already where you are, it is my hope that after this book you’ll get there. Following Jesus and entering an eternal kind of life – right now – is the best way to live.

So the message of and about him [Jesus] is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. It is about living now as his apprentice in kingdom living, not just as a consumer of his merits. Our future, however far we look, is a natural extension of our faith by which we live now and the life in which we now participate. Eternity is now in flight and we with it, like it or not.

This is another central theme of the book. We begin our eternal life now – on earth. We don’t need to wait for heaven to begin to live an eternal kind of life. 

Buckle your seat belts. This book can take you to another level in your walk with God. It’s mostly just an explanation and enlightenment of scripture. Understanding and applying the Word of God can transform us. This book is just a tool along the way.