Who can be a disciple?

from the old testament

• The Old Testament does not use the term “disciple” in the same way the New Testament does, but it lays the foundation for who can follow God and learn His ways. For example, Isaiah 55:1–7 gives a broad invitation to come to God, turn from wickedness, and seek Him while He may be found. Deuteronomy 6:4–9 calls God’s people to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength and to order their lives around His commands. Deuteronomy 10:12–13 calls His people to fear Him, walk in His ways, love Him, and serve Him with their whole heart.

from the new testament

• A disciple, in any religion or occupation, follows a master, learning about and becoming like the master. In Christianity, being a disciple means a commitment to know and serve Jesus to become like Him. Jesus hand-selected the first disciples to leave behind what they once knew and follow Him (e.g., Matthew 4:19). Those first twelve men spent the next three years living, eating, talking with Jesus, and observing everything He did. After He resurrected, before ascending, He commanded them to make more disciples by teaching others also to obey Him (Matthew 28:19–20). Today, discipleship is the ongoing process of men and women becoming more like Jesus and teaching others to do the same.
• Following Jesus as a disciple starts with counting the cost. Many people followed Jesus, but Jesus taught them, “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28). He explained: “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (v. 33). He was saying that following Him means taking stock of what you must lose to be His disciple. Otherwise, a follower may find it too hard or too costly and turn back, unfit for Jesus’ kingdom (Luke 9:62).
• At another time, Jesus explained what’s required of His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23–24). Denying oneself means denying one’s will. Just as Jesus did only the Father’s will, never His own (John 6:38), a disciple’s goal is to do only Jesus’ will, not his or her own (Galatians 2:20).
• Once one has counted the cost, becoming a disciple means submitting to Jesus as Lord. Speaking about salvation being through faith in Jesus, Paul said, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9–10).
• Confessing Jesus as Lord, however, is not purely a verbal confession. Jesus warned: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus said there will be those, when He returns, who will make that kind of confession, and His reply will be, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).
• Instead, genuine confession is expressed through obedience. All true disciples receive the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). With His help (Romans 8:13), they can obey Jesus. Thus, all disciples are expected to evidence the Spirit is living in them by the visible fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). But obedience is not only the Spirit's work. Paul said, “…  work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” adding that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). Obedience is working with God, but it’s still work.
• James warned those who had confessed faith that their lives did not show the Spirit’s work. He equated it to someone telling someone in need to “be warm and filled” without actually giving them anything (James 2:14–16). He called such action worthless, adding, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).
• This does not mean disciples are perfect. John warned that anyone who believes they are perfect is lying (1 John 1:8, 10). However, Jesus warned that calling oneself a disciple while willfully sinning signaled that one was a “worker of lawlessness.” A disciple knows he or she is not yet like Jesus (1 John 3:2), meaning not yet perfect, and thus continues to repent when sinning (1 John 1:9).
• Discipleship is open to everyone. One only needs to have a genuinely repentant heart for sin (2 Corinthians 7:10) and to believe that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are sufficient to pay God’s just wrath against sin (Romans 5:9–10).
• However, though it's open to all, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to be a disciple, as has been shown. Becoming a disciple is starting on the difficult path of obeying Jesus. However, it’s also difficult because the world hates Jesus. Jesus reminded the disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18–19).

implications for today

Anyone can be a disciple, but following Jesus isn't like following someone on YouTube. Being a disciple is a lifelong commitment to obey Jesus. It’s not “liking” something Jesus says. It’s becoming like Jesus.

Sometimes people worry that when others say we must count the cost or be ready to obey Jesus, they mean our works save us. But that’s not what Jesus meant when He said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). He meant that true disciples do what He says because that’s the basic definition of being a disciple. It’s not enough to claim allegiance; you must act consistently with that confession.

Paul, speaking of confession, spent much of Romans (and other books like Ephesians) teaching that salvation comes by faith (e.g., Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8–9). Yet he also spoke of salvation as confessing that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9), which means believers must have their minds transformed (Romans 12:2) and fight their sin (Romans 6:12–14).

So, anyone can be a disciple. You can be a disciple! But being a disciple is more than saying you are one. It’s taking up your cross and actually following the one you call Master (Luke 9:23).

If you are not currently a disciple, we want you to count the cost. Not to discourage you, but because we want you to know what you are getting into so that you persevere. Once you become a disciple, or if you already are, keep running the race of faith by throwing off your sin and looking to your Master, Jesus (Hebrews 12:1–2)!