in the first question he’s making a stark contrast between converting to “christianity”—or more clearly: a particular “faith and practice”—and becoming an actual disciple of Jesus. he’s calling us, in regards to baptism and everything else, to ask the question, “what are they converting to?” christianity based upon our “faith and practice” or discipleship.

i don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not they are ready by reaching a certain milestone or point (rounding the bases), but rather the teachability or frame of mind that the person has before getting baptized. i think he’s calling for attitudinal preparedness instead of climbling the ladder. so, your call at the end of “let’s be careful not to trade easy believism for legalistic righteousness” is in a sense exactly what willard is pointing out but is taking it a step further and saying—”look there’s a third way here.”

Make no mistake, I am 100% behind the practice of real discipleship, seeing it as essention to being truly missional. The quote above, though, worries me for two reasons.

First, I don’t like the idea of putting off baptism until someone is “ready.” How are you going to define ready? The Ethiopian in Acts was “ready” after a relatively brief presentation of the Gospel. He didn’t have to prove himself as a disciple before being allowed to be baptized. In fact, baptism appears to be the door into discipleship, if we read scripture honestly.

Second, at what point are we crossing the anti-biblical line of promoting what the Protestant Reformation call “works-righteousness”? I, for one, will never be worthy of God’s mercy, and would be fooling myself to think that any feeling or exertion of effort could make me good enough to “make the cut.”

Yes, we desperately need for the church to capture the idea of genuine discipleship. This is an ages-old problem that past generations have attempted to address, even as we now approach it in our own times. But let’s be careful not to trade easy believism for legalistic righteousness.

the more i read and the more i listen to rob, the more i realize rob’s a really good reader.