What Does Jesus Ask Of Us?
Not 'be nicer.' Not 'say a prayer and carry on.'
There are two easy misreadings of Christianity, and they're both comfortable. One turns it into moral self-improvement. The other turns it into a one-off transaction with no consequences for Monday.
The words Jesus actually uses
Repent: not grovel — change direction. Turn around. Admit the way you've been running your life isn't working and go the other way.
Believe: not intellectual agreement — trust. The difference between believing a surgeon is competent and lying down on the table.
Follow: the invitation He gives every disciple is 'follow me.' A student who walks with the teacher, learns His way of seeing, and takes on His way of living.
- Repentance
- Turning around. Changing your mind and your direction, not just feeling bad.
- Faith
- Trust you act on, not certainty you feel.
- Discipleship
- Apprenticeship to Jesus — learning to live the way He lived.
Grace first, then everything changes
The order matters enormously and gets flipped constantly. You are not accepted because you cleaned yourself up. You're accepted, and then the cleaning up starts — not as payment, as response.
But it does start. Jesus is blunt that following Him costs something: your money loosens its grip, your enemies stop being disposable, your grudges become untenable, your status games look ridiculous. James, His brother, puts it flatly: faith that produces nothing isn't faith, it's an opinion.
Jesus links love of God and love of neighbour as the summary of the entire law (Matthew 22:37–40).
How grace and works relate has been argued for 500 years between Christian traditions. What no serious tradition claims: that following Jesus leaves your actual life unchanged.
The question He puts to you
Halfway through Mark's Gospel, Jesus turns to the people who have watched Him closest and asks one question. It's the question this whole Foundation has been walking toward, and no one can answer it on your behalf.
“But who do you say that I am?”
Who do you say Jesus is?
You now know enough to read Him for yourself. Start with John — the Gospel written explicitly so that you can decide.