The woman said to [Jesus], “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father….But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:19-24).

These words from the lips of Jesus lay the foundation for our understanding of the most important aspects of worship. He spoke of “true worshippers” and described their qualifications. This indicates that there are people who are worshippers but not true worshippers. They may think they are worshiping God but they really aren’t because they aren’t meeting His requirements.

Jesus declared what characterizes true worshippers—they worship “in spirit and truth.” Thus it could be said that false worshippers are those who worship “in flesh and falseness.” Fleshly, false worshippers may go though the motions of worship, but it is all a show, as it does not stem from a heart that loves God.

True worship of God can only come from a heart that loves God. Worship, therefore, is not just something we do when the church gathers, but something we do every moment of our lives as we obey Christ’s commandments. Amazingly, the woman Jesus with whom was speaking had been married five times and was now living with a man, and she wanted to debate about the proper location to worship God! How representative she is of so many religious people who attend worship services while living daily lives that are in rebellion to God. They are not true worshippers.

Jesus once rebuked the Pharisees and scribes for their false and heartless worship:

You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me . But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:7-9, emphasis added).

Although the Jews and Samaritans in Jesus’ day obviously placed great emphasis on the location where people worshiped, Jesus said that the location was unimportant. Rather, it is the condition of each person’s heart and his attitude toward God that determines the quality of his worship.

Much of what is called “worship” in churches today is nothing more than dead ritual acted out by dead worshipers. People are mindlessly parroting someone else’s words about God as they sing “worship songs,” and their worship is in vain, because their lifestyles betray what is really in their hearts.

God would rather hear a simple, heart-felt “I love You” from one of His true obedient children than endure the heartless droning of a thousand Sunday-morning Christians singing “How Great Thou Art.”

Praise and worship are a normal expression of our faith in God. If we truly believe the promises of God’s Word, then we will be joyful people, full of praise to God. Joshua and the people of Israel had to shout first; then the walls fell. The Bible admonishes us to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil. 4:4) and “in everything give thanks” (1 Thes. 5:18a).

One of the most outstanding examples of the power of praise is found in 2 Chronicles 20 when the nation of Judah was being invaded by the armies of Moab and Ammon. In response to King Jehoshaphat’s prayer, God instructed Israel:

Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them….You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chron. 20:15b-17).

The narrative continues:

And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, ” Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. ” And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mt. Seir destroying them completely, and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When Judah came to the look-out of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments, and valuable things which they took for themselves, more than they could carry. And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much” (2 Chron. 20: 20-25, emphasis added).

Faith-filled praise brings protection and provision!

For further study on the subject of the power of praise, see Phil. 4:6-7 (praise brings peace), 2 Chron. 5:1-14 (praise brings God’s presence), Acts 13:1-2 (praise brings God’s purposes and plans to light), and Acts 16:22-26 (praise brings God’s preservation and prison release).

Because of a false concept of God’s grace in salvation, the modern gospel has often been stripped of essential biblical elements that are considered incompatible with a message of grace. A false gospel, however, only produces false Christians, which is why such a large percentage of modern new “converts” will not be found even attending church within a few weeks after they “accepted Christ.” Moreover, many who do attend church are very often indistinguishable from the unregenerate population, possessing the same values and practicing the same sins as their conservative neighbors. This is because they don’t really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and haven’t actually been born again.

One of those essential elements now removed from the modern gospel is the call to repentance. Many ministers feel that if they tell people to stop sinning (as Jesus did to the woman caught in the act of adultery), it will be tantamount to telling them that salvation is not of grace, but works. But this can’t be true, because John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter and Paul all proclaimed that repentance is an absolute necessity for salvation. If preaching repentance somehow negates God’s grace in salvation, then John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter and Paul all negated God’s grace in salvation. They, however, understood that God’s grace offers people a temporary opportunity to repent, not an opportunity to continue sinning.

For example, when John the Baptist proclaimed what Luke refers to as “the gospel,” his central message was repentance (see Luke 3:1-18). Those who didn’t repent would go to hell (see Matt. 3:10-12; Luke 3:17).

Jesus preached repentance from the start of His ministry (see Matt. 4:17). He warned people that unless they repented, they would perish (see Luke 13:3, 5).

When Jesus sent out His twelve disciples to preach in various cities, “They went out and preached that men should repent” (Mark 6:12, emphasis added).

After His resurrection, Jesus told the twelve to take the message of repentance to the whole world, because it was the key that opened the door to forgiveness:

And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47, emphasis added).

The apostles obeyed Jesus’ instructions. When Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, his convicted listeners, after realizing the truth about the Man whom they had recently crucified, asked Peter what they should do. His response was that they, first of all, should repent (see Acts 2:38).

Peter’s second public sermon at Solomon’s portico contained the identical message. Sins would not be wiped away without repentance:^[1]

Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away (Acts 3:19a, emphasis added).

When Paul testified before King Agrippa, he declared that his gospel had always contained the message of repentance:

Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance (Acts 26:19-20; emphasis added).

In Athens, Paul warned his audience that everyone must stand in judgment before Christ, and those who have not repented will be unprepared for that great day:

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31, emphasis added).

In his farewell sermon to the Ephesian elders, Paul listed repentance along with faith as an essential part of his message:

I did not shrink from…solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:20a, 21; emphasis added).

This list of scriptural proofs should be enough to convince anyone that unless the necessity of repentance is proclaimed, the true gospel has not been preached. A relationship with God begins with repentance. There is no forgiveness of sins without it.

^[1] Likewise, when God revealed to Peter that Gentiles could be saved simply by believing in Jesus, Peter declared to Cornelius’ household, “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what it right, is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34b-35, emphasis added). Peter also declared in Acts 5:32 that God gave the Holy Spirit “to those who obey Him.” All true Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (see Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6).

If the idea of two separate classes of Christians, the believers and the disciples, is not found in Scripture, how is such a doctrine defended? The answer is that this doctrine is solely supported by another false doctrine about salvation. That doctrine alleges that the demanding requirements for discipleship are not compatible with the fact that salvation is by grace. Based on that logic, the conclusion is drawn that the requirements for discipleship cannot be requirements for salvation. Thus, being a disciple must be an optional step of commitment for heaven-bound believers who are saved by grace.

The fatal flaw with this theory is that there are scores of scriptures that oppose it. What, for example, could be more clear than what Jesus said near the close of His Sermon on the Mount, after He had enumerated numerous commandments?

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).

Clearly, Jesus linked obedience with salvation, here and in many other statements. So how can we reconcile the numerous scriptures like this with the Bible’s affirmation that salvation is by grace? It is quite simple. God, by His amazing grace, is temporarily offering everyone an opportunity to repent, believe, and be born again, empowered to live obediently by the Holy Spirit. So salvation is by grace. Without God’s grace, no one could be saved, because all have sinned. Sinners cannot possibly merit salvation. So they need God’s grace to be saved.

God’s grace is revealed in so many ways in regard to our salvation. It is revealed in Jesus’ dying on the cross, God’s calling us though the gospel, His drawing us to Christ, His convicting us of our sin, His granting us an opportunity to repent, His regenerating us and filling us with His Holy Spirit, His breaking the power of sin over our lives, His empowering us to live in holiness, His discipline of us when we sin, and so on. None of these blessings have we earned. We are saved by grace from start to finish.

According to Scripture, however, salvation is not only “by grace,” but “through faith”: “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8a; emphasis added). Both components are necessary, and they are obviously not incompatible. If people are to be saved, both grace and faith are necessary. God extends His grace, and we respond by faith. Genuine faith, of course, results in obedience to God’s commandments. As James wrote in the second chapter of his epistle, faith without works is dead, useless, and cannot save (see Jas. 2:14-26).^[1]

The fact is, God’s grace has never offered anyone a license to sin. Rather, God’s grace offers people a temporary opportunity to repent and be born again. After death, there is no more opportunity to repent and be born again, and thus God’s grace is no longer available. So, His saving grace must be temporary.

^[1] Moreover, contrary to those who maintain that we are saved by faith even if we have no works, James says that we cannot be saved by a faith that is alone: “You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” True faith is never alone; it is always accompanied by works.

Finally, we arrive at the fifth sentence in the passage under consideration. Notice again how it is joined to the others by the beginning word, for:

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38).

This again is the person who would not deny himself, but who wished to follow his own agenda, pursuing what the world had to offer, and who thus ultimately lost his life and forfeited his soul. Now he is characterized as one who is ashamed of Christ and His words. His shame, of course, stems from his unbelief. If he had truly believed that Jesus was God’s Son, he certainly would not have been ashamed of Him or His words. But he is a member of an “adulterous and sinful generation,” and Jesus will be ashamed of him when He returns. Clearly, Jesus was not describing a saved person.

What is the conclusion to all of this? The entire passage cannot rightfully be considered to be a call to a more committed life addressed to those who are already on the way to heaven. It is obviously a revealing of the way of salvation by means of comparing those who are truly saved and those who are unsaved. The truly saved believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thus deny themselves for Him, while the unsaved demonstrate no such obedient faith.

Now the third and fourth sentences:

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37).

In these the person is highlighted who will not deny himself. He is also the one who wishes to save his life but ultimately loses it. Now he is spoken of as one who pursues what the world has to offer and who ultimately “forfeits his soul.” Jesus exposes the folly of such a person by comparing the worth of the whole world with that of one’s soul. Of course, there is no comparison. A person might theoretically acquire all the world has to offer, but, if the ultimate consequence of his life is that he spends eternity in hell, he has made the gravest of errors.

From these third and fourth sentences we also gain insight into what pulls people away from denying themselves to become Christ’s followers. It is their desire for self-gratification, offered by the world. Motivated by love of self, those who refuse to follow Christ seek sinful pleasures, which Christ’s true followers shun out of love and obedience to Him. Those who are trying to gain all that the world has to offer pursue wealth, power and prestige, while Christ’s true followers seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Any wealth, power or prestige that is gained by them is considered a stewardship from God to be used unselfishly for His glory.

If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Mark 8:34).

Again, note that Jesus’ words were addressed to anyone who wished to come after Him, anyone who wanted to become His follower. This is the only relationship Jesus initially offers—to be His follower.

Many desire to be His friend without being His follower, but such an option does not exist. Jesus didn’t consider anyone His friends unless they obeyed Him. He once said, “You are My friends, if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).

Many would like to be His brother without being His follower, but, again, Jesus didn’t extend that option. He considered no one His brother unless he was obedient: “Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother” (Matt. 12:50, emphasis added).

Many wish to join Jesus in heaven without being His follower, but Jesus conveyed the impossibility of such a thing. Only those who obey are heaven-bound: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).

In the sentence under consideration, Jesus informed those who wanted to follow Him that they couldn’t follow Him unless they denied themselves. They must be willing to put their desires aside, making them subordinate to His will. Self-denial and submission is the essence of following Jesus. That is what it means to “take up your cross.”

Jesus’ second sentence makes the meaning of His first sentence even more clear:

For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it (Mark 8:35).

Again, notice this sentence begins with “For,” relating it with the first sentence, adding clarification. Here Jesus contrasts two people, the same two people who were implied in the first sentence—the one who would deny himself and take up his cross to follow Him and the one who would not. Now they are contrasted as one who would lose his life for Christ and the gospel’s sake and one who would not. If we look for the relationship between the two, we must conclude that the one in the first sentence who would not deny himself corresponds to the one in the second sentence who wishes to save his life but will lose it. And the one in the first sentence who was willing to deny himself corresponds to the one in the second sentences who loses his life but ultimately saves it.

Jesus was not speaking about one losing or saving his physical life. Later sentences in this passage indicate that Jesus had eternal losses and gains in mind. A similar expression by Jesus recorded in John 12:25 says, “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal” (emphasis added).

The person in the first sentence who would not deny himself was the same person in the second sentence who wished to save his life. Thus we can reasonably conclude that “saving one’s life” means “saving one’s own agenda for his life.” This becomes even clearer when we consider the contrasted man who “loses his life for Christ and the gospel’s sake.” He is the one who denies himself, takes up his cross, and gives up his own agenda, now living for the purpose of furthering Christ’s agenda and the spread of the gospel. He is the one who will ultimately “save his life.” The person who seeks to please Christ rather than himself will ultimately find himself happy in heaven, while the one who continues to please himself will ultimately find himself miserable in hell, there losing all freedom to follow his own agenda.

Although Jesus made it quite clear what a disciple is, many have replaced His definition with one of their own. For example, to some the word disciple is a vague term that applies to anyone who professes to be a Christian. To them, the word disciple has been stripped of all its biblical meaning.

Others consider discipleship to be an optional second step of commitment for heaven-bound believers. They believe that one may be a heaven-bound believer in Jesus but not be a disciple of Jesus! Because it is so difficult to simply ignore Jesus’ demanding requirements for discipleship that are recorded in Scripture, it is taught that there are two levels of Christians—the believers, who believe in Jesus, and the disciples, who believe in and are committed to Jesus. Along these lines, it is often said that there are many believers but few disciples, but that both are going to heaven.

This doctrine effectively neutralizes Christ’s commandment to make disciples, which in turn neutralizes the making of disciples. If becoming a disciple means self-denying commitment and even hardship, and if becoming a disciple is optional, the large majority of people will elect not to become disciples, especially if they think they will be welcomed into heaven as non-disciples.

So here are some very important questions that we must ask: Does Scripture teach that one can be a heaven-bound believer but not be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Is discipleship an optional step for believers? Are there two levels of Christians, the uncommitted believers and the committed disciples?

The answer to all of these questions is No. Nowhere does the New Testament teach that there are two categories of Christians, the believers and the disciples. If one reads the book of Acts, one will read repeated references to the disciples, and they are obviously not references to a higher-class of more committed believers. Everyone who believed in Jesus was a disciple.^[1] In fact, “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26, emphasis added).

^[1] Disciples are mentioned in Acts 6:1, 2, 7; 9:1, 10, 19, 25, 26, 36, 38; 11:26, 29; 13:52; 14:20, 21, 22, 28; 15:10; 16:1; 18:23, 27; 19:1, 9, 30; 20:1, 30; 21:4, 16. Believers are mentioned only in Acts 5:14; 10:45 and 16:1. In Acts 14:21, for example, Luke wrote, “And after they [Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples…” Thus Paul and Barnabas made disciples by preaching the gospel, and people became immediate disciples at their conversion, not at some later optional time.

Even in the light of so many scriptural proofs that salvation depends on repentance, some ministers still find a way to nullify its necessity by twisting its clear meaning to make it compatible with their faulty conception of God’s grace. By their new definition, repentance is no more than a change of mind about who Jesus is, and one that, amazingly, may not necessarily affect a person’s behavior.

So what did the New Testament preachers expect when they called people to repent? Were they calling people to only change their minds about who Jesus is, or were they calling people to change their behavior?

Paul believed that true repentance required a change of behavior. We have already read his testimony regarding decades of ministry, as he declared before King Agrippa,

Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance (Acts 26:19-20, emphasis added).

John the Baptist also believed that repentance was more than just a change of mind about certain theological facts. When his convicted audience responded to his call for repentance by asking what they should do, he enumerated specific changes of behavior (see Luke 3:3, 10-14). He also derided the Pharisees and Sadducees for only going through the motions of repentance, and warned them of hell’s fires if they didn’t truly repent:

You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance….the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:7-10, emphasis added).

Jesus preached the same message of repentance as John (see Matt. 3:2; 4:17). He once stated that Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching (see Luke 11:32). Anyone who has ever read the book of Jonah knows that the people of Nineveh did more than change their minds. They also changed their actions, turning from sin. Jesus called it repentance.

Biblical repentance is a willful change of behavior in response to authentic faith born in the heart. When a minister preaches the gospel without mentioning the need for a genuine change of behavior that authenticates repentance, he is actually working against Christ’s desire for disciples. Moreover, he deceives his audience into believing that they can be saved without repenting, thus potentially insuring their damnation if they believe him. He is working against God and for Satan, whether he realizes it or not.

If a minister is going to make disciples as Jesus commanded, he must begin the process rightly. When he doesn’t preach the true gospel that calls people to repentance and an obedient faith, he is destined to failure, even though he may be a great success in the eyes of people. He may have a large congregation, but he is building with wood, hay and straw, and when his works go through the future fire the quality of his work will be tested. They will be consumed (see 1 Cor. 3:12-15).