For years, Ballard Lead Pastor Bill Clem has taught and preached on the description of a disciple's lifestyle. This year, he expanded greatly on those sermons in his book, Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus, which comes out this Friday, along with Pastor Brad's book. Over the next few weeks, we'll be previewing excerpts from different chapters, to give you a taste of what the book—and discipleship—are all about. Today, we start at the very beginning in chapters 1 and 2, "The Story of God" and "The Hero of the Story."

God's Story Is Inviting

God has chosen to reveal himself to us through story. We come to know his story in two ways. First, God allows us to see his faithfulness and his patient and providential guidance of the nations. Second, he gives us listening privileges into

1. intimate conversations with men such as Moses in Egypt;
2. the promises he makes to Abraham (Genesis 12:15, 17); and
3. the prayers of David.

The God of the Bible does not seem interested in us knowing about him as he desires for us to actually know him, to have experiential knowledge of him.

God's Story Is Not at Risk

God created man both to image God and to be in relationship with others. There are two clues that inform our understanding of the image of God. First, God gives man a boundary (Gen. 2:15–17). This boundary is an opportunity for the man to obey God. The second clue is seen in God’s warning man against disobedience (Gen. 2:17). The penalty for disobedience is death, the destruction of or at least the radical distortion to the image bearer. Let’s catapult forward to a time in God’s story when there will be no death and God’s transforming work will be complete. Here we find something fascinating: neither God’s design nor his purpose was ever at risk. In Revelation 21 we have a re-creation scene that forms the bookend to God’s story—death has died and we will live as image-bearing sons of God.

God’s Story Is Told through His Creation

Just as we learn from God’s creative acts, God also leaves evidences of his existence, as though there were divine fingerprints throughout his creation for us to discover who he is and what he is like. All of creation bears his authorship. Going a little further, if we take into account that every person bears the image of God, then we can understand every person to have some sense of God within his soul.

God's Story Is Told through the Trinity

God makes himself known in his story as a triune God. Picture the Trinity, this divine community, at work in creation. "In the beginning, God [the Father] created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Throughout Genesis 1, God says or speaks (the word of God) everything into existence. Jesus is called "the Word" of God in John 1:1–5. And in Genesis 1:2 we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters of the earth. All three persons of the Godhead were working to bring about the creation of the universe. These three persons are all integrally involved in the story as God, yet they assume complementary roles.

God’s Story Is Told through the Bible

The Bible does claim to be inspired by God, giving it the distinct role as the record of God’s story. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

God’s Story Is Told through Jesus

The über-disclosure of God is in Jesus Christ, the God-man. Many have argued that Jesus was just another ordinary man who made some waves during the first century AD. Hebrews 1:3 makes a noteworthy claim to the contrary: "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." Viewing Jesus in particular is most beneficial for knowing God and his story.

God's Story Involves Conflict

God has written his story within the context of a cosmic battle. God established his rule beyond this earthly scene, and the first acts of rebellion took place off stage. Isaiah 14:13–14 depicts what was going on within the heart of Satan. Satan’s sin is that of pride and trying to take the place of God on his throne. As we begin reading the story in Genesis, we don’t know that this insurrection happened. Almost out of nowhere, the Serpent talks to Eve, reasoning her out of her convictions and convincing her that God himself had malevolent purposes for establishing her boundaries. Humans, while created good, were lured into an evil choice, and from that fateful moment their image bearing has been distorted by sin, and they have been generators of sin. Since that moment, man has struggled against imaging someone or something else other than his Creator.

God’s Story Involves Rescue

Sin’s impact was completely devastating to God’s original creation. The imaging we were intended to do is no longer possible. We were designed to magnify God. Without a big story and a bigger God, we are left trying to rescript out personal meaning, as did Satan himself. The good news to the cosmic battle and redemptive story of God is that victory is already in view in Revelation 21. God scripts the times and the events of his story so that our part may be a venue for imaging God. God delights in sharing his mission with us, and participating with God in his activity is what it means to image God.

God's Story Has a Hero

Jesus walks onto the scene during a time of shrunken hope. He walks in, however, knowing he is the hope--the Christ, the Messiah of God. From Jesus life we see a model of what is looks like to be God-centered. Jesus doesn’t pull out his platinum God card, borrowing power or strength to cope his way through his temptations sinlessly; he lives with the limited equity of a human life bound by dependence upon God as his loving Father. Jesus centered himself effectively on the Father’s call upon his life: "to seek and save the lost" (Luke 19:10). The above post is excerpted from chapters 1 and 2 of Disciple, published by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Next Tuesday, an excerpt from chatper 3 on how the disciple's identity is found in God's image. Stay tuned for more Tuesday posts from Pastor Bill.