John Mark Comer is one of the most widely-read Christian authors currently, if not THE most widely read. While formerly a pastor in Portland, OR, he now seems to be focusing primarily on his writing. I have only read one of his books, Practicing the Way, but this book gives his big picture view of Christianity. So I want to be careful not to judge the man by just one book, but this books does seem to give a good look into the man, and his teaching.
Here’s how I would sum up this book: On the one hand, I think many of the things he says, taken individually, are both true and helpful. On the other hand, I think his overarching vision of the Christian life is lacking some significant components, and thus concerning, at the least.
I’ll unpack this statement, and focus on one concerning piece in his overarching vision. I find myself agreeing with much of what he says because he is responding to a weakness or error in contemporary Christianity that I also think needs responding to. There have been tendencies to emphasize initial conversion, getting people in the door to salvation, saving people from the terrors of hell, and then ignoring or downplaying actually coming to love, worship, and obey Jesus, and becoming more like him.
As Comer says on page 16, “Much preaching of the gospel today does not call people to a life of discipleship. Following Jesus is seen as optional—a post-conversion ‘second track’ for those who want to go further.”
I heartily agree with Comer that this is a problem, and a serious one. I saw such things frequently. And I was helped by many of his diagnostic comments on this.
It is in responding to this problem that I find myself going in a different direction than Comer. Comer’s response is, as the subtitle of the book states: “Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.” Which, of course, are all good and right things that Christians should be pursuing, and it’s not hard to support these biblically.
Here’s my concern: In responding to the emphasis on conversion alone, Comer goes to the other extreme and has little place for conversion, and thus little need for a mighty work of God to regenerate and renew an individual. What really matters is that you become a disciple, or apprentice, of Jesus: being with him, becoming like him, doing as he did.
This often shows up in statements that are rhetorically compelling, but theologically unhelp at the least: “You see, Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity; he’s looking for apprentices in the kingdom of God” (17). Isn’t Jesus looking for both?
Now, it’s not that Comer never speaks of needing an inner change that is beyond what we can produce. For example, he says, “You cannot become more loving by trying to become more loving, no matter how much self-effort you bring to the table. You have to be transformed in your inner person, or what Jesus called ‘the heart’” (85). This is great! But the bulk of the rest of the book confuses this by making little connection between such heart change needed in conversion, and the life change that flows from it.
To put it plainly, discipleship without the regeneration that happens at conversion is a lost cause. Apart from a mighty work of God, we are “dead in…trespasses and sin” (Eph. 2:1), “darkened in understanding” (Eph. 4:18), ignorant and hard of heart (Eph. 4:18), with minds blinded to the “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4), unable to “accept the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:14). And because of this, we are “children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
If we are to have any hope of being a disciple, we first have to be A) made right before God through the sin-atoning, sacrificial death of Jesus, and 2) through this, be regenerated/born again/made new inwardly by the Holy Spirit. These are one-time events that must occur.
The fault of previous gospel presentations is to emphasize these things alone (and usually just the first one), with no call for discipleship. Comer’s fault, in my view, is to emphasize discipleship, with no teaching of the necessity of the new birth. And while I assume Comer genuinely wants to see more true disciples of Jesus, calling for unregenerate people to become apprentices of Jesus, apart from the radical change that comes at conversion, isn’t going to produce that result.
Instead, I fear it will blur the lines between those “in Christ” and truly belonging to God, and those outside Christ and apart from God. If the important thing is that you are trying to be an apprentice of Jesus, and whether or not you have been fundamentally changed by Jesus is secondary, then many will claim to be Christians who are not, what a Christian is will be fuzzy, and the gospel’s witness will be confusing.
I don’t think Comer would say that being inwardly changed by Jesus is secondary, but it’s at least not clear in the book what role it plays, and it’s hard to tell what his doctrine of regeneration is, or if he has one at all.
In my view, a better response to the emphasis on conversion alone (easy-believism, Jesus as fire insurance from hell) is to make clear in our gospel presentations that the glory of God is the end goal. That we were created to behold God as glorious, and order our lives around him. And that the goal of God’s salvation is that we would have our eyes open to behold his glory, our wills changed to desire his glory, and would be strengthened and compelled to live for his glory in all things, beginning in this life and into eternity.
Paul explains the workings of God’s salvation in Ephesians 1-2, and repeats this purpose statement twice, “…to the praise of his glory” (1:12, 14) and then once, “to the praise of his glorious grace” (1:6). And then in 2:7 again points to God’s purpose in salvation, “…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
In other words, I think Comer’s response to a man-centered gospel presentation (Jesus died merely to remove your guilt and get you into heaven) isn’t sufficiently God-centered. Rightly seeing God’s concern for his glory, and that he intends for our joy in coming to see his glory, shows the necessity and purpose of both initial conversion and lifelong discipleship. Trusting in Jesus’ atoning death for our sins (our part in initial conversion) magnifies God’s grace. But those awakened to God’s glory—especially the glory of his undeserved favor and welcome in saving sinners by grace—are compelled to not accept such a gift and move on, but to live their lives for his glory.
Comer presses in on being lifelong apprentices of Jesus, of practicing the way of Jesus, and like I said, there was much in his presentation that I would agree with, and a few things that made me reconsider how I see things, in a good way. But I don’t think his solution is any better than the problem he is responding to, and I am concerned with the insufficient view of the Christian life that it presents.