You were auto-enrolled in discipleship school when you became born-again in Christ Jesus. There is no waiting period where Jesus is Savior; then, one day, He becomes Lord, and then you become His disciple. Salvation without Lordship is a manmade doctrine or religious construct based on the intention of the will with no regard to internal change or the eternal Word of God. The outside remains dirty because the inside didn’t change. But the person seems sincere in their words and declarations but are not concerned with a dirty diaper. And there are who are changed in a moment and are concerned about their outside but are left in their burial clothes as Lazarus was until Jesus commanded them to change him. Many believers are neglected because that have not been told the need for discipleship.

Paul, an apostle, tells us several times not to argue over words as they do not lead to righteous living. So, rather than be a word police when I hear someone say Jesus is my Savior but not yet my Lord, I let them define what they say before redirecting appropriately.

Last week, I talked about this man-made class and the division of the saints, the believers, and the disciples. Many in the church have falsely communicated, if not said outright, that believers receive the gift of salvation and that the disciples are either in the ministry or those looking for extra credit as overachievers. Jesus gave the Great Commission to make disciples, not subjective believers. We should know who belongs to God or the devil by their fruit, not their statement of faith or their truth.

I am giving an abstract view of the gospel so that your salvation does not rely on the cunningness of words but on the grace of God in Christ Jesus. In God's power, one is saved and not through intellectual understanding. The concrete gospel in John 3:16, Romans 10:8-10 and many other scriptures is good and leads us to the One and only Savior Jesus. But many are hearers of scriptures and not doers, so they stop with the reading of the scripture and do not do what it says to do. They think they have eternal life in the scripture they know but will not go to the Savior the scripture speaks of.

Jesus did not come to earth with a warrant and a guilty verdict of man's sinfulness. Jesus came to save, not judge. Jesus came to save those with a godly sorrow and a contrite heart. Jesus did not come to save those who have an admission of guilt but lack godly sorrow and a justification for continual sin.

Many people in prison and jails across this nation today have confessed their guilt but have no sorrow for what they did. These sinners claim their guilt, justify why, and then pay the time for the crime, waiting to get out to continue life on their terms. Like many baby Christians, they are not justified in Christ Jesus as if they never sinned but self-justified in their sin—an admission of sin but no repentance. Yes, I'm guilty of breaking the law, but I am justified in why I did it and continue it! Like the adulterer who blames his wife for cheating, my wife wasn't fulfilling her duties, so I had to go outside the covenant to meet my needs. The husband admits his guilt and then justifies it.

Jesus became my Savior and Lord on September 6, 1999, on Labor Day. I went to church that Wednesday and met a woman who was radically saved six months prior to me, and she started a street ministry witnessing to the homeless in downtown OKC with sack lunches, prayers, and help if they wanted it. I joined her every Friday night for five years and many Fridays after.

For nearly twenty-four years since, I have had a question about the church's mission that doesn't add up to my understanding of scripture, and no one will answer me when I question this particular doctrine or teaching.

Is there a general admission or coach seating for Christians going to Heaven? Because I have heard countless times people making Jesus their Savior, but He is not yet their Lord. Or they were reasoning away habitual sin, calling someone a baby Christian when they have been in church for twenty years or more. I have even heard most ministers state there is a difference between believers and disciples. Believers will go to Heaven, but only disciples will receive the rewards.

I don't get it. Where in scripture is discipleship described as an extra credit activity? Where is the general admission for those who take the least resistant road into the kingdom of God for the nosebleed seating and those who pay the price to get an assigned seating close to the alter or business class assigned seating?