by Zach Maloney & Jarred Taylor
On Monday, we posted Part 1 of Jarred Taylor’s interview with Dr. Picirilli. In today’s post, we conclude this wide-ranging interview.
______________________
JT: You also talk about the narrative account of Jesus and the rich young ruler in the book. What significance does this story have for how we should view discipleship?
RP: The rich young ruler asked Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt. 19:16). Jesus then issued the call to discipleship. He issued it in the very same words that He issued to many others like Peter, Andrew, James, and John. He said some of the very same things to the rich young ruler as He did to His disciples in what it means to “take up your cross and follow me.” So what becomes clear to me from this is when you want to know what you need to do to be saved, Jesus responds to that by calling you to be a disciple.
Consequently, Jesus’ answer to being saved is to be My disciple. That is what you need to do in order to be saved. Now I don’t think that contradicts salvation by grace through faith. I think it just helps us understand better what faith really means. Faith then includes the kind of commitment to Jesus that a disciple makes. So becoming a Christian and becoming a disciple are just two ways of saying the same thing. It seems to me like there are three particularly important demands that are involved in becoming a disciple. We can see these three demands in Jesus’ challenge to the rich young ruler and ultimately they challenge everyone who answers the call to discipleship.
The first is to break your ties with anything that is going to be your master other than God. That is why He asked the rich young ruler to sell everything because His master was His possessions. The second demand is to take up your cross. That is a call to take up a way of execution. It’s a call to death. It’s not a piece of jewelry to be worn as we often do with the cross symbol. It’s not even a burden to be carried. It is dying. It’s as if Jesus is saying to someone in our day, “If you want to be my disciple, bring along your electric chair for your execution.” That is what it meant to carry your cross in New Testament periods. It was a place of criminal, shameful, execution. So that is part of the demand of being a disciple.
The third demand that Jesus issues to the rich young ruler is, “come follow me” (Mt. 19:21). The word disciple means a learner, a pupil, and a student. So in those days a disciple was someone who aligned Himself to a certain teacher and then began to learn from that teacher and emulate those teachings into His life as a follower of that particular teacher or master. That is what I learn with Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler and what it means to be a disciple. This is all serious business, of course. But that is where the rich young ruler account comes in and the various other what we sometimes call “the hard sayings of Jesus” fit into that very same category.
____________________
JT: What would you say to high school students who are seeking to “take up their crosses daily” in an environment that is increasingly difficult to acknowledge Jesus as Lord?
RP: That is a tremendous question. What I would say first of all is, focus on those three things I mentioned in the previous question. This starts by breaking ties with anything else that is your master other than the Lord. God doesn’t want people who have two masters. Jesus said, “You can’t serve God and mammon” (Mt. 6:24). He didn’t say don’t do it. He said you couldn’t. I think the very first thing is to settle right at the very root of your heart who your master is going to be. It can’t even be yourself. That’s why He said you need to deny yourself. It can’t be your possessions. That is why the rich young ruler had to sell his. He said you have to hate your very life, also. It can’t be sin. Sin tries to master all of us. That is the devil’s way of ruling our lives. So the most important thing from the start is to settle within one’s own heart is who your master is.
Afterwards, set out to live the way Christ instructed. Start putting in practice the teachings of Jesus. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, “make disciples in all the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19). That is what a disciple does. He puts into the practice the teachings of his master. This is what anybody has to do, and it applies even to those in high school. A person in high school must answer the question, “Who is going to be my Lord?” They must answer the questions, “Am I going to run my life? Am I going to let the crowd run my life?” They can’t answer yes to either of these questions and be a disciple of Jesus. You must decide to let Jesus run your life and to live according to His teaching.
I think that is even more important than what we often hear about being a witness. Certainly being a witness is important, but if the individual first settles in his own heart who is going to be his master, and does the very best he can to live according to the teachings of Jesus, then it will not be very hard to find opportunities to witness. So that is basically what I would say to a young person asking that kind of question.
____________________
JT: I am a high school student that will be graduating next year. What advice would you give to students, like myself, who are seeking His direction, as disciples, in adult life decisions such as marriage, providing for family, and career path?
RP: A good part of that answer would be what I said in the previous question. Once you settle who your master is, then you need to follow His directions for life, that is the key to it all. After that, I would say one of the important things would be to seek out a really good Christian education, a college, like Welch College, where a person could go to get sound, Biblically directed teachings about life. For a person in high school, the next most important decision is going to be where to attend college. Other decisions are equally important like career and marriage. But choosing a college is most often times the next decision to make after high school. Then, in terms of the other things, it is a matter of letting the Lord run your life. You seek His direction. That is done through prayer. It is done through also making sure that what you want is the Lord’s will rather than just pure selfish will.
Obviously, I think every Christian young person should consider the possibilities of ministry. But the trouble with that is that the word ministry most often times is interpreted as just preaching. There are actually many forms of ministry. The world indeed needs Christian doctors, lawyers, carpenters, farmers, and mechanics. So the vocational choice is an important decision. Afterward, the decision to marry is probably the single most important decision other than becoming a Christian. So seeking God’s guidance is needed in this area as well. You need to make sure the person you want to marry matches your desire to live for God. Paul talks about being unequally yoked together, and he warns against that. Certainly that would rule out marrying an unsaved person.
____________________
JT: If you knew that God would allow you to live 20 more years, what project or projects would you most likely tackle?
RP: Laughs. That to me is the hardest question of all. There are some things I have been working on since I am retired from teaching at the College for 47 years. That was my life’s work and the area in which God called me to. When I retired, one of the things I kept thinking to myself was, “How much longer am I going to live, and what am I going to do with that time?” There are many things that I wanted to do so I did not have any trouble coming up with any ideas. I wanted to do a lot of research and writing. One of the things though that I found myself saying to the Lord was, “I’d like to have the same kind of sense of calling for what I do with the rest of my life that I had when felt like I should teach at the Bible College.” I think He has given me that now in the matter of doing research and writing. It’s very satisfying to me. I feel like that some of the things I produce may have been of help to someone. I hope so.
So, if I should live 20 more years, I would look at it in these terms: “Okay Lord, what is the next writing project you would like for me to write on?” The Lord works in many ways to guide us: His providence, circumstances that He brings about, and leading us by the principles of His word. Sometimes when I pray to the Lord I say, “Lord, help me to hear that still small voice over my shoulder saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it.’” There is a project now that I am considering. It is to write a defense of the idea of the freedom of the will against Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards. These are men who each have wrote a book on free will.”
____________________
JT: Thank you for making time to let me interview you.
RP: My pleasure. Thank you for the good questions.
September 16, 2015
“Discipleship: The Expression of Saving Faith,” will prove to be one of the most important contributions Dr. Picirilli makes. Our men’s group is reading and discussing it chapter by chapter at 6:30 on Friday mornings.
Dr. Picirilli has condensed the content of the book into four sermons. He is preaching these at our church on four Sunday evenings this fall. This past week his first message was presented with clarity, tender compassion and great urgency. These will be archived at sylvanparkfwb.org. These messages will make excellent presentations at conferences, associational or state meetings.
As a pastor, I want my people to be sure theirs is genuine, biblical faith. As a sharer of the gospel, I want to be sure that I only present the terms and conditions of salvation that God honors. “Discipleship” helps make that clear.