Robert Picirilli’s ‘Discipleship’: The Expression of Saving Faith: A Review Essay
Discipleship is a term used quite often in the Christian community. Glance at a Christian publisher’s catalog and you’ll encounter books, small group studies, and countless other resources on the subject. Like any biblical term, we need reliable instruction to make sure we understand it. Free Will Baptists have few teachers more reliable than Dr. Robert Picirilli, long-time author, professor, and denominational leader.
In Picirilli’s new book Discipleship: The Expression of Saving Faith (Randall House, 2013), he explains the way in which the New Testament defines discipleship [1]. Though he doesn’t dismiss discipleship programs, Picirilli shows that it cannot be reduced to a temporary sequence of lessons or a new program. Instead, it begins with understanding discipleship as foundational to our understanding of salvation.
In Discipleship, Picirilli seeks to confront a problem that many churches face: the ease at which some people are able to live without clear evidence of authentic faith. In Picirilli’s words, “We have so emphasized salvation by faith alone that we have based assurance of salvation on the mere profession of faith” [2]. In addressing this and related problems, we are taken through 200 pages designed to explain the way the New Testament presents salvation. After all, if our ideas about discipleship are to be affirmed or corrected, then it must begin with rightly understanding what it means to be saved.
There are two models of defining personal salvation. Picirilli begins in chapter one by summarizing the first model that most Christians tend to know: the transaction model. This model focuses on the doctrine of justification by faith as it is presented in Paul’s epistles, especially Romans and Galatians. It identifies sinners’ lack of righteousness before God as the chief spiritual problem. It is only through Christ’s righteousness, imputed by faith, that God’s gracious salvation can be experienced. [MB1] However, Picirilli implies that too often we read Paul’s letters as if they are a Bible unto themselves, instead of seeking to understand how they—inspired as they are—belong to the same canon of Scripture as Jesus’ words.
Picirilli’s reading of the New Testament leads him to conclude there is a second, and often ignored model of salvation. It is what he terms “the discipleship model.” Though perhaps many readers have been guilty of preaching a two-tiered Christianity, Picirilli persuasively shows that this is not what Jesus taught. Instead of seeing “converts” and “disciples” as two classes of Christians, he shows that the Bible presents them as one. Though “all disciples are [not] at the same place in their walk with Jesus,” people don’t become followers of Jesus without faith and repentance—the same thing we would say of any convert [3]. Jesus did not know of a faith “that does not heed the demands of discipleship, of faith that does not produce the fruitfulness of hearing and keeping the word of God” [4].
Picirilli shows that in Acts, for instance, the word disciple is used to refer to believers. He argues that “disciple was synonymous with Christian” [5]. He then describes discipleship this way:
To be a disciple means to repent and believe the gospel and so to enter the Kingdom of God. . . . It means one must renounce all other competing allegiances and values and submit to His Lordship. . . . In short, this means leaving, following, and learning. And this is what it means to be a Christian [6].
The discipleship model is also seen in John’s gospel and epistles (chs. 3-4). The kind of belief that Jesus calls for is never just mental assent—it includes commitment and obedience. In Picirilli’s words, real faith “necessarily involves obedience, a commitment to a way of life, the abandoning of self, a yielding up of oneself to be possessed by Jesus, the way one thinks, lives, and acts. This is, in other words, true discipleship” [7]. First John then helps show that this kind of faith will necessarily yield obedience in the life of a disciple: “[I]t is the very nature of a disciple to do the will of God, to love the Father and fellow-believers rather than the world, to walk in the light of the commandments of God, and so to avoid sin” [8]. This is important because it helps the reader understand how one can have the assurance of salvation despite our imperfection. Picirilli suggests that a person can only have assurance so long as sin is the exception, rather than the rule—“that it contradicts rather than manifests my character” [9].
Though sometimes the Apostle Paul seems anxious about good works, he doesn’t contradict the discipleship model (ch. 5). He is simply emphasizing the righteousness of God by faith as a foundation for a disciple’s obedience [10]. This is where Picirilli’s attention to James and Hebrews (ch. 6) ensures that we understand that the kind of faith that justifies is the same kind that results in discipleship. The definition of faith he provides is quite helpful: Faith is the “believing response to whatever God says,” whether it be promises we believe or commands we obey [11].
In chapter seven he confronts some problematic views of sanctification, and explains the three-fold biblical framework for understanding our journey into holiness: regeneration, our present walk with Christ, and glorification. This chapter naturally leads into the next which tackles the problem of sin. Picirilli explains that even though we fall short of sinless perfection, “saving faith expresses itself in the loving obedience of a committed disciple of Jesus Christ” [12].
There are some technical discussions here and there that readers should be aware of. However, Picirilli has a gift for summarizing, and draws his findings together in chapter nine and the conclusion. He applies the theology of discipleship to (1) how we evangelize, (2) how we offer assurance of salvation, and (3) how we understand discipleship in the local church. He urges the church to not be guilty of tolerating professing Christians who have no observable obedience. Christians are encouraged to ensure their evangelistic presentations help people hear the call to discipleship as part of coming to Christ [13]. Finally, he reminds us that the Bible teaches that “[c]hurches should be made up of people devoted to living out the implications of discipleship in a covenant relationship, and to helping each other do that in confidence of the active work of God in their lives” [14]. It is then appropriate that he concludes the book by explaining the basic demands of discipleship.
Though the book is a fine one, chapter nine is worth the price of the book because the summary, anecdotes, and exhortations give excellent guidance on evangelism, assurance of salvation, church membership, and church discipline. I urge pastors and teachers in the church, or anyone supposing to be an expert on discipleship, to purchase and digest this thoughtful book. Not only will it help clarify some common misunderstandings, but it will be a useful tool as the Christian church tries to take seriously Christ’s call “to go and make disciples.”
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[1] Robert E. Picirilli, Discipleship: The Expression of Saving Faith (Nashville: Randall House, 2013), 224 pp. paperback $14.99
[2] Picirilli, 2.
[3] Ibid., 37.
[4] Ibid., 36.
[5] Ibid., 17.
[6] Ibid., 38.
[7] Ibid., 57.
[8] Ibid., 83.
[9] Ibid., 87.
[10] Ibid., 108.
[11] Ibid., 118.
[12] Ibid., 157.
[13] Ibid., 190.
[14] Ibid., 196.
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