What's In A Name?

Mart DeHaan posted a couple of really interesting blog posts a few weeks ago. In them he ponders a mystery. Why is it that the New Testament writers stopped using the word ‘disciple’? While the word ‘disciple’ or its plural version occur over 250 times in the Gospels and Acts, they don’t show up even once in all the letters that follow after that! I have found myself wondering the same thing at times in the past though I have never given it enough attention to identify a plausible explanation.

The mystery is accentuated by the fact that the great commission given by Christ is to “Go and make disciples…”. Now, we can hasten to point out that the concept of following Christ and learning and practicing His teachings is certainly prominent in the letters. But it is still curious that the word disciple(s) is not used. Instead, other words are used in its place, words like ‘brothers’, ‘saints’, those ‘in Christ’, ‘children of God’, ‘church’, ‘family of God’, ‘beloved’, and so on. Why would this be? And what is the significance of it?

Mart offers the following as a possible explanation:

What makes sense to me is that we’re seeing here something similar to what happened to the law of Moses once Jesus perfectly fulfilled it. Even though the practical truth, heart, and implications of the law continue to be useful for wisdom (2Tim 3:16), the Law as a binding national constitution was set aside, having served its purpose in bringing us to Christ (Gal 3:23-26). The institution of discipleship seems to follow a similar pattern. Jesus fulfilled the perfect teacher in that, as the Living Word of God, he walked just as he taught. He also fulfilled the perfect learner in that, as a faithful son, he became a perfect example of listening, being, and doing.

In the process, however, the requirements Jesus gave for being his disciple parallel the law of Moses. His principle of discipleship (Luke 6:40) brings us to the end of ourselves, and to him, when he makes it clear that no one can truly be his disciple in the full sense of the word (Luke 14:26-27) (Luke 14:33).

The result is that other identifiers that emphasized who Jesus is and what he did for us (saints [set apart ones], children of God, followers, family, servants [in a grateful self-identifying sense], people of the Way, Christian [i.e. in Christ]) became the identifying norm. This seems so appropriate since, although we no longer sit physically at Jesus feet, and walk with him through olive trees, we do live by in his Spirit, by his grace, in ways that would earn us failing marks as disciples.
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Now Scripture is his story. The law of Moses becomes a chapter that helps us understand why we need him. And discipleship becomes our opportunity to use our failing grades as an opportunity to learn from the One who is able to do for us immeasurably more than we could ever ask or think.
So… being accepted in his school is not limited to those with passing grades, but is available to all who humbly take our place at his feet wherever we are…”

There is a lot of food for thought in those words. We do well to remember that, though the four gospels are part of our New Testament, the events chronicled in the gospels technically come under the governance of the old dispensation, ‘under the Law’. It was a time of transition and the New Covenant was arriving and the Messiah was present to save, however, Christ Jesus had not yet suffered and died and the Spirit had not yet been given (Galatians 4:4,5). Add to this fact, as Mart points out, that the kind of discipleship that Jesus called people to was an exceeding high mark that we all come far short of.

I particularly like the thought that Mart mentions how the identifiers chosen in the New Testament letters all seem to emphasize “who Jesus is and what He did for us...” This may just be the real crux (Latin for cross!) of the matter. The clear emphasis of the letters of the apostles of Christ to the churches is not about what anyone might be prepared to do for Him. It’s about Him and what He has done and is prepared to do for, in, and through us, for His glory alone. This is something that the word disciple just does not convey.

So, what do you think?