One of the characteristics of Free Grace Theology is that it makes a distinction between a believer and a disciple. A believer is somebody who has believed in Jesus for eternal life. They receive it as a gift. Works play no part in it whatsoever. A disciple is a believer who follows Christ in obedience. Discipleship involves works and is not free. All believers will be in the kingdom, but not all believers are disciples.
Many Bible teachers disagree. They say we must do works to prove we are saved. They maintain that all believers are disciples. There is no difference between the two.
This is a strange and contradictory teaching. Those who promote it say that eternal salvation is free, then quickly add that it will cost the person everything. That makes absolutely no sense. They do this because they think verses that say eternal salvation is free and verses about the cost of being a disciple are all talking about the same thing—salvation from hell. They try to make all these verses be about the same thing.
We need only look at one example to see how nonsensical such a view is. Imagine preaching that salvation is absolutely free, then saying that Mark 1:16-20 is talking about the same thing. The Lord calls four fishermen to follow Him. The word follow is a discipleship term. It is an ongoing process. The Lord wants these men to walk after Him, learn from Him, and do the things He commands them to do. Receiving eternal life is not a process. It happens in a moment of time, when the person believes in Jesus for eternal life.
Clearly, Jesus is not telling these men to believe in Him. He is not offering them a gift. These men had already believed and received the gift of life (John 1:37-42). Jesus is telling them to do something more and to get to work.
The call to do work is also clear in what Jesus wants them to do. He wants them to learn how to fish for men. These four men were fishermen, and they knew the kind of work involved in that business. When Jesus called them to follow Him, they were doing hard work. Some were casting nets into the sea (v 16). Others were mending broken nets and getting them ready for the next trip out into the water (v 19).
Recently, I went on a trip to the coast of Georgia. I did a tourist thing where a fisherman showed us how to catch fish with a large net. I volunteered, along with another man, to give it a try. We unfolded the net and waded about thirty yards out into the water. We dragged the net for about ten minutes. We caught a bunch of small fish. After those ten minutes, I was done. I needed to take a nap.
It was obvious to me that fishing takes a great deal of work. Not a single one of those men whom Jesus called that day thought, “He is calling us to do something that is absolutely free and takes no work.” They understood that the Lord was urging them to follow Him by doing hard work.
Even though I have heard it a thousand times, it still baffles me when I hear people say that the Lord was telling these fishermen to believe in Him for eternal life in these verses. If those four men heard somebody say that Jesus was offering them a free gift on the Sea of Galilee that day, they would have rolled on the ground laughing.
There is no doubt that Christ was calling these men to be His disciples. That is not the same thing as believing in Him. Believing costs nothing. Discipleship is very costly. It is hard work. If you try to say they are the same thing, you only look foolish.
Let’s keep them separate. Receiving eternal life is given freely by God’s grace through faith alone. Being a disciple will take hard work. Go to the coast of Georgia and drag a net in the ocean for ten minutes and you’ll see. Unless your theological tradition compels you do to so, you will never say that Mark 1:16-20 is an invitation for these men to receive a gift.
