Understanding from Jesus is one of the largest aspects of the Faith in both size and feeling. When someone discovers something purely because God wants them to, the real-world application of this transcends anything that someone could ever perform without this grace.
If someone wants to take their faith to the next level, if they want to understand intricate parts of Jesus with a profound theology as well as being able to teach others, then the only way to do it is to turn their eyes from self-activated effort and give it all to God.
There is an understanding beyond human capability that can only be received by the grace of God.
First Step
The first thing that someone has to understand about transcending their reality is that Jesus Christ himself will personally teach you. After Jesus spoke the parable of the sower, His disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables. Jesus told His disciples, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” (Christ, NIV). Jesus declares to His disciples that the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven has been given to them. This means that to a disciple of God, Heaven's secrets aren't going to be given, but they have been given.
If someone makes themselves a student of Jesus, then despite their sin, it has already been promised that Jesus will tell their soul all of Heaven’s secrets and God is always faithful to his word.
The grace and mercy that comes with Jesus’ knowledge was promised and set before man thousands of years ago. However, this introduces another vital aspect of understanding.
For those who make themselves students of Jesus, they receive understanding and virtue; but for those who don’t, Jesus will make things cryptic and incomprehensible.
Jesus expands on Heaven's secrets in another statement He made after telling the parable of the sower, “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (Jesus, NIV). This concept can be easily understood and perceived in even the tangible real world. When someone with millions of followers posts, they gain far more followers than when someone with fourteen followers posts. Also, when someone with a hundred million dollars invests in a business, they generally get more profit than a local small business owner. However, although this principle applies to finance and fame, Jesus is directly applying it to knowledge, He had just finished a parable when he said it.
This challenges something because knowledge is one of the places this concept doesn’t seem to apply.
Yes, there are more opportunities for post-high school learning if you have a strong transcript. However, if someone hands an experienced welder a beginner's guide to welding and then hands a grocery bagger a beginner's guide to welding, the experienced person won't learn anything, and the grocery bagger will learn the basics. This concept violates understanding of regular learning, which means that it only applies to the secrets of Heaven.
Jesus is saying that those who know God better than anyone, people like CS Lewis or John Piper who have a transcended relationship with Him, are going to get more and more.
However, the people who barely care enough to go to church, who never read their Bible, never pray, they will fall even further from God. The more time one spends engaging in active and deep conversation with God, the more that God is going to be teaching them. There is an understanding that can only come from Heaven, and the only way to unlock it is to actively love God daily.
Being a Deciple
Jesus introduces a massive concept when He divides His disciples from those who deny His grace. He doesn’t sugarcoat it in even a minor way when He declares that only to His followers has Heaven been given. This challenges understanding of Jesus and what He looks like to those outside of grace. The first aspect of this to dissect is that it shouldn’t be a surprise. Jesus declared, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Christ, NIV).
This idea completely shatters the mainstream narrative of Jesus and should challenge something in the hearts of many Christians. Jesus is saying that anything that isn’t all in on faith is all out.
If whatever isn’t actively glorifying God is actually against Him, then there are mass amounts of people’s lives they need to surrender to Christ. If God hasn’t hand-picked someone’s career to actively glorify Him in what they do, then they need to get rid of it.
This doesn’t mean that everyone in the world has to become a pastor, but it does mean that every carpenter should believe that God is actively calling them because some part of their carpentry is vital to His plan.
Immediately, walls get built up around radical changes like this. One would dismiss that idea with something like, “I can’t just change jobs,” or “I can’t give up friends that I don’t get closer to God with.” Often people begin to think that these crazy changes get an exemption from God because they are just too much.
However, God has something greater in store for His disciples.
Every disciple whose calling was documented gave up everything to follow Jesus. Peter, famously, was called in a radical way. Jesus came to him and told him to cast his fishing net in a certain area of a pond. Peter declared that they hadn’t caught anything all day, but because he believed Jesus was God he did it anyway. He pulled so many it began to sink his boat. In order to sink a boat it would take tens of thousands of pounds of fish, which could be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Peter was given hundreds of thousands of dollars, and what did he do?
“So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” (Luke, NIV).
A trademark of Jesus’ disciples, and an aspect everyone has to adopt if they want to be His disciple, is leaving everything to follow God. Not some things, not convenient things, not things you understand and agree with, but everything. If this doesn’t sound good, if giving something up to enhance faith sounds grueling, then it’s time to start believing that God is good and that everything He commands is alos good. Anyone who has not made themselves a disciple of Christ has taken an active stance against Him, but He still offers that anyone who wants to be His disciple leave everything and follow Him.
The Devide
At this point, there are answers to what it takes to be God’s disciple, and what God has promised His disciples, but what the divide between those who do and don’t follow God looks like tangibly is still uncertain. Jesus transcends the discipleship relationship with a gracious and personal touch. It’s written in Mark, “He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” (Mark, NIV). There is one vital word to examine and take to heart with great care.
Jesus explained everything. There was no stone left unturned and no detail left out.
This means that people who give everything up to follow God can expect to understand everything they have given up. Christians are not called to walk into faith clean. Instead, by the strength of God, they are called to continue their faith clean. They don’t get the understanding until they have already started. For an atheist to understand God, they need to walk into the faith uncertain. Additionally, to those who weren't his disciples, He didn’t say anything without using a cryptic parable.
There are too many people who live decades with massive theological questions that God is not going to answer until they surrender the remaining things that they haven’t devoted to God.
Every question that a disciple of Jesus has will be answered, that is a promise from God. However, every question that those who haven’t given up everything have will remain unanswered, that is a promise from God.
Understanding the faith isn’t a hope, it’s a promise. Jesus has granted this gift to every one of His disciples. However, to those on the outside, He has promised that everything will be cryptic and they will not understand Heaven. If someone wants their questions answered, they have to take their first steps without understanding and give up everything, and then Jesus Christ himself will personally tell them everything and more.