Being Salt and Light:

An Introduction to Discipleship

Prepared by and for
Immanuel Baptist Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Table of Contents

Introduction

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus characterizes Christians as the "salt" and "light" of the world (Mt. 5:13-16). By this, He meant that believers are to exert a positive and transforming influence on society by living Godly lives and witnessing to others about Jesus Christ. By "being holy as God is holy," and by performing good deeds, we can draw the attention of unbelievers to the nature of God and hopefully bring them to saving faith. In this way, we will be true disciples (followers and students) of Christ, and we will advance God's Kingdom in the world.
This study guide is designed to help you be that salt and light that God wants you to be. Over the next five weeks you will be given some helpful instructions about how to develop personal holiness, how to share the essentials of the gospel with an unbeliever, and how to answer some of the tough intellectual questions that often stand in the way of unbelievers coming to faith in Christ.
At the end of this study you will not have all of the answers to the tough questions, nor will you have developed a totally Christ-like character. Learning to be salt and light is a life-long process with many personal struggles. Nevertheless, this study will give you a good foundation for further growth and knowledge in these areas. (For future study, we have included an appendix with a list of books for further reading.)
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Session I: The Call to Holiness

The purpose of Christians as God's Redeemed Ones (Church) is to bring glory to God through our lives, our lips, and our service. The Bible gives ample testimony to this fact:

Our Lives
Our Lips
Our Service

We could summarize all of these texts by quoting the command given by God in I Peter 1:16: Be Holy, as I am holy. Christians are called to be holy.

What is Holiness?
According to Baker's Dictionary of Theology, the word holiness used of God "signifies His separation from and transcendence over all His creation; His supremacy, majesty and awesome glory as in Exodus 3:4-5, and the ethical spotlessness of His character as in Leviticus 11:44. So, holiness involves two ideas: (1) Separation/Differentness, and (2) Moral Purity.
Since Christians are called to imitate God's holiness, this means that we, too, are to be:
How We Achieve Holiness
Because we are sinners by nature, we are not holy in ourselves. We must be made holy by:
His Part, Our Part
There is an important truth to be gleaned from these texts, namely, that our sanctification is a joint project in which we and God work together. God has a part to play and so do we. According to Philippians 2:12-13, we are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." That is, we are to do the works that follow from our salvation. How are rebellious sinners able to do this?: "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." God makes us willing to do His will.

God's Part: Making us willing to do good works for His glory.
Our Part: Obedience to God's Word

The Imperfection of Our Holiness
It is vital to recognize, though, that the pursuit of holiness is a process that continues throughout our lives. Our achievement of holiness in this life is imperfect and partial. It is only in heaven that we will be completely free of sin and perfect forever. (cf. Gal. 5:17; Rom. 7:14-25; I Cor. 15: 49-58; Col. 3:4; I John 3:2)
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Session II: The Pursuit of Holiness

In the last session, we saw how those who are saved by faith in Christ are called to live a holy life through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. In this session, we will examine some practical guidelines for pursuing this call.

The Struggle with Sin
Even though we have been born again and are new creations in Christ, the vestiges of our old, sinful nature remain within us (Rom. 7:14-25). It is like a dead carcass lying around stinking up our house, and infecting everything that touches it. However, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us (Rom 8:37), and we have the means to overcome the influence of our sinful nature.

Basic Principles
Remember these truths:

Resources for Growth
God has provided these important resources to aid us in our quest for holiness:
  1. Prayer (Heb. 4:16)
  2. The Word of God (II Tim. 3:16-17)
  3. The Church (Eph. 4:3-16)


Spiritual Exercises
In light of the above resources, these are things you can do to progress in spiritual growth and holiness:

Living as an Over-comer
Of course, you can do all of these things and still not progress in your walk with Christ. These exercises must be accompanied by an inward resolve to:

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Session III: Sharing the Faith



Evangelism is the privilege and responsibility of those who claim the name of Christ. It is a privilege because Christians have a desire to serve and obey their Lord (Jn. 10:27; I Jn. 2:3). It is a responsibility because Jesus commands us to share our faith with others (Mt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8).

Evangelism = the proclamation of the gospel (or good news).


The Good News
What is the "good news"?

It is the news that Christ has died for our sins and has been raised from the dead (I Cor. 15:1-4). Christians who have received and believe the good news cannot help but share it with those around them. It is natural to share with others the good things one experiences. A study of the Bible shows that Christians share the message of salvation not only because they are commanded to do so, but also because they are compelled by an inward desire.

The Objects Of Evangelism
With whom are we to share the gospel?

Answer: EVERYONE. Christians are called to declare the salvation of God and his wonders among all people (Ps. 96:1-3; I Pet. 2:9-10; Col. 1:28-29). We are not to exclude anyone or to target only those whom we think will listen.

The Subjects of Evangelism
The Bible indicates that some people have a special gift of evangelism (Eph. 4:11). Nevertheless, it is clear from Scripture that all Christians should be active in the process of sharing the good news (I Pet. 3:15), for it is God's will that the message of Christ be proclaimed through his people (Rom. 10:14; II Cor. 5:18-20). As we saw in earlier sessions, it is important to live the gospel, but that is not enough. The gospel must be spoken as well.

How to Present the Gospel
Each Christian can and should learn a simple outline of the gospel message that they can share at any time. Here is one very good example:
The Roman Road

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Session IV: Answering Tough Questions Part One



Faith Is Not Blind
Believing in Christianity need not be a matter of "blind faith." From the very beginning, the truth of the gospel has been firmly based on solid historical evidence. In addition, believers throughout the centuries have seen Christianity as providing a philosophically satisfying world-view. This is no less true today.

Apologetics
It is important to note that the Bible itself commands us to show people that Christian faith is not blind. The apostle Peter says to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that have" (I Pet. 3:15). The phrase "give an answer" comes from the Greek word apologia which means "a rational defense." It is from this word that we get "apologetics," the discipline of defending the Christian faith against intellectual attacks. Thus, according to Peter, Christians are commanded to engage in apologetics. We are commanded to give a rational answer to tough questions that unbelievers ask about our faith. In this session and the next you will learn how to answer seven such questions.

Question #1: "How do you know there is a God?"

Psalm 14:1 claims that only a fool says there is no God. Why is this so? Because the evidence for God's existence is overwhelming. The Bible itself gives testimony to the nature of this evidence. The Apostle Paul says that "since the creation of the world His invisible attributes...have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made (Rom. 1:20). The Psalmist writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1). These passages are suggestive of two arguments that philosophers have given to prove that God exists:

The Cosmological Argument
This argument proceeds from the existence of finite, dependent things which cannot account for their own existence, to the existence of an infinite Being who has always existed.

The Design Argument
This argument starts with the existence of design in the Universe and argues that this design had to have an intelligent Designer.

Question #2: "How can God be both One and Three?"

Many people reject the doctrine of the Trinity because they think it is absurd. How can something be one thing and three things at the same time? the confusion arises over a misunderstanding. When we say that God is one and three, we do not mean that He is both in the same sense. God is One in a different respect than He is Three.

Doctrine of the Trinity: God is One in essence, three in person.
The word "essence" refers to what it is for something to be the kind of thing it is; its "whatness." The word "person" refers to a "persona" or center of consciousness. Thus, when we say God is One in essence we mean that there is exactly one being who is God. Yet in this one being simultaneously exists in three distinct persons.

Trinitarian Heresies to Avoid

Question #3: "How can Jesus be both God and man?"

It is difficult to see how one person could be God and also a human being because the traits of each are so different. God is infinite, man is finite; God is immaterial, man is material. Yet, Christians believe that Jesus was fully God and fully human. The answer to this problem is found in the Chalcedonian Definition:
"Christ has two natures which are without confusion, without change, without division, without separation."
What this means is that the divine and human natures are intimately connected, but they are distinct and unmixed.

Christological Heresies to Avoid
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Session V: Answering Tough Questions Part Two



Question #4: "If there's a God, why does He allow evil?"

Because God is infinitely good, it is often difficult to understand why evil exists in the world, and why He allows bad things to happen to us. But, three things can be said in answer to this question.

First, according to the Bible, it is human beings who are ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. By our sin and rebellion, we corrupted both ourselves and God's creation (Gen. 3).

Second, we can say that God allowed us to bring evil into His creation in order to bring about greater goods. For instance, God could bring about important virtues in His creatures like courage and compassion which could not exist without evil. Also, by destroying evil, God could display His own glory and mercy to us (Rom. 9:22-23).

Third and most important, we are assured by the Scriptures (Rev. 21:4) and by the nature of God that evil will one day be destroyed.

Question #5: "Why should we believe that Jesus is God?"

The answer to this question lies in the fact that Jesus taught that he was God, and that he proved it by his miraculous life. An argument can be constructed to show this:

The Case for the Deity of Christ



Question #6: "Why should we believe the Bible is the Word of God?"

Christians take the Bible to be God's Word on the authority of Jesus Christ. Since He is God (as shown above), whatever He teaches must be true. Jesus clearly taught the divine inspiration of both testaments. So, we believe the Bible to be God's Word. We can spell the case out in more detail like this.

The Case for Biblical Authority
Question #7: "Aren't there errors in the Bible?"

Critics often accuse the Bible of making mistakes about matters of historical and scientific fact. We cannot survey all of the alleged mistakes here. It is important to point out, though, that there has never been a proven error in the Bible. There are certainly many difficult passages, and apparent discrepancies in some accounts. But, difficulties and discrepancies do not automatically equal errors. Most of the accusations of error are based on confusions and misunderstandings such as: The important thing to remember is that the burden of proof is on the critic. As long as we can offer reasonable explanations for the difficult passages, we have no reason to doubt the inerrancy of Scripture.

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Appendix


For Further Reading
Holiness
Evangelism Tough Questions

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