^“The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.” (Psalm 126:3)

In the course of this series of articles emphasizing a “sacramental” view of our lives as disciples, we have drawn upon the basic Law-Gospel distinction that is familiar to many Lutheran Christians. As Lutherans, we know that when we listen to the Word of God, we hear the Law in terms of the expectations and demands that God makes upon us as his creatures. The Law tells us what we must do for God. On the other hand, in the Word of God we also hear the Gospel. This is when we experience what God has done for us — particularly in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the promise of how God uses us as instruments of his Holy Spirit to accomplish his will in us. The Gospel tells us what God has done, and is doing, among us.

Many approaches to Christian discipleship tend to employ a law-based understanding of our lives as disciples, focusing on the works and actions that God expects of us as his followers. For example, various authors on the subject use a list of what they call the “marks of discipleship” or the “disciplines of faith” to describe the things that set us apart as disciples of Christ. Unfortunately, such lists are often presented (or perhaps, falsely perceived) as a list of good works or daily practices that must be mastered to achieve “disciple status.”

If Christian discipleship was simply a list of things we do for God, it would be nearly the same in just about any world religion. But if what makes the Gospel unique is the message of what God has done for us in Christ, then we should expect that what makes Christian discipleship unique also has to do with what God does for us in Christ.  Since we are justified by faith alone in Christ, the marks of discipleship cannot simply be a list of works. There is but one “mark” of a disciple, and that is faith alone.

Of course, there are many ways our faith in Christ expresses itself in our everyday lives and there are many things we “do” because of this faith. But these are the ways God’s own Holy Spirit bears fruit among us; we are simply the earthen vessels through which God does his work.

For example, when Jesus taught his disciples the “Lord’s Prayer” (Lk. 11:1-4, Mt. 6:7-15), he did not give them a list of commandments, but rather, a list of petitions — i.e. things to ask God for. The very fact that we need to ask, shows that these things are not our own accomplishments

In this list of requests he gave us to ask of God, Jesus was not only teaching us about prayer, he was showing us ways in which our faith daily depends upon our Heavenly Father. In the phrases of the Lord’s Prayer, he was showing us what it means to live a life of faithful trust and discipleship through the very things he told us to ask our Lord to accomplish in us.

As faithful disciples of Christ …

We look to him in trust, praying that his name may be hallowed in our lives.

We ask him to rule our lives, making us a part of his kingdom by steadfast faith in his revealed Word.

We pray that God would not only guide us by his will, and put to death all that seeks to serve our own will instead of his.

We trust in God to provide for our daily bread, knowing that he alone can give us what we need, confident that he will provide enough that we may share his gifts with others.

We come to him in confession, asking for God’s forgiveness, knowing that we daily fall short of his expectations. In turn, we forgive one another in his name and by his power, knowing that it is through us that God’s speaks his Word of grace to others.

We trust in God to be with us in times of temptation, struggle and weakness. Knowing that we are weak but he is strong, we rest all our faith and hope in his deliverance from the power of sin, death, and the devil.

These are all ways in which we experience what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and are things that he alone can accomplish in us.

Indeed, the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are things that involve our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; they are the things that comprise all we do in thought, word, and deed. But these petitions are more than a list of human works to perform. They are first and foremost the things for which we look to God. They are the fruit of God’s own Spirit in us as he leads us and shapes us in lives of discipleship, “that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:20)