https://www.jvfesko.com/blog/2024/3/18/pastoral-ministry-part-4-joy

If I could expand on J. V. Fesko’s admonition, I would try to show that the cruciform life is not an option. It’s a good article Dr. Fesko presents to explain that there is joy instead of slavish effort in our walk with Jesus.

In fact, if you go about in life with self-focused effort without the joy of the Lord, then, you may be still relying on works. The effort in the Christian life is following Jesus, which is easy: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mt. 11. 30). Denying oneself doesn’t take effort per se, but is more an act of faith.

All 4 Gospels insist that the cruciform life is necessary with the added component of walking with Christ.

Mt. 10.38-39: And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (ESV).

Mk. 8. 34-35: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it (ESV).

Lk. 9.23-24: And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it (ESV).

John 12.25-26: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him (ESV).

Jesus-The Way

Jesus insisted that the disciples knew the way they were to live subsequently of His return to the Father: And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (ESV). How could Jesus say that His disciples knew, or should know the way? In Jn. 6.43, Jesus references Jer. 31.31-34 which promises a New Covenant where God will individually instruct believers instead of relying upon a human framework (“neighbors and brothers,” hence, Aaronic Priests) set up under the 1st covenant: It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me (ESV). John, in his first epistle, also makes the connection with the New Covenant promise that Christians would know God by means of the Holy Spirit: And you have an annointing from the Holy (One) and know all (things) (Jn. 2.20, see also 2.27). This “knowing” connects with the promise in Jer. 31.34b: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (ESV).

The Pharisaical Way

Therefore, it is clear to see that the new life in Christ is dynamic. One’s manner of conduct and speech reflects Christ through the inner man in Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5.22-23). This dynamism produced by God’s Spirit is exactly how Jesus described the New Covenant to the Pharisees in a parable in Lk. 5.33-39. In this parable, Jesus is criticised for allowing His disciples to go about “eating and drinking” instead of fasting and offering public prayer like the disciples of John and Pharisees. Although Jesus said that His disciples will fast after He returns to the Father, that fasting will be private (see Mt. 6.16-18) unlike the Pharisees habit of public fasting, where they wanted to be seen by others.

In the section of Lk. 5.33-39, Jesus gives the parable of the “new cloth” and “new wine.” This parable to the Pharisees encodes the New Covenant and the Old. The garment covering their sin is torn reflecting the inability of humans to live righteously. Christians, on the other hand, stand forgiven: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8.1-2 ESV).

The dynamism in Lk. 5 is shown by the new cloth’s movement, in this case shrinking after washing. The parable is not about shrinking but inherent movement of the new cloth after usage. The New Covenant cannot be applied to the Old Covenant and somehow patched up so that humans can follow both. No, the promise held out in the Old Covenant “to do this and live (Rom. 10.5, Gal. 3.12) referred to Christ (Gal.3.19) and was a means to show us our inability to please God (see Rom. 3.19). Of course, during the time of the Mosaic Covenant, God instructed Israel to build a temple to forgive transgression (which represented and foreshadowed substitution in Christ).

The new wine in Luke 5 shows dynamism as well since grape sugar fermentation increases pressure in the holding wineskins, that, in those days broke if the skins were previously used. Jesus instructs us that the dynamism of His new life must be applied in a new way. We no longer rely upon human effort which fails, but, trusting in Jesus for both acceptance and sustenance.