No Cakewalk

From Kevin Vanhoozer's Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Growing Disciples through Scripture and Doctrine

Discipleship has never been a cakewalk. To follow the cruciform way of Jesus is to wander in the wilderness, as Israel did for forty years, a precursor of Jesus’ own forty-day desert trial. There are streams in the desert, to be sure, but no rose gardens. Yet the church is upward bound because its members’ citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). If we keep in mind Augustine’s image of the church as the city of God, then theology – the teaching that undergirds living for God as his city – is part and parcel of the Christian’s civic responsibility. Theology teaches how to live the good life in light of the good news to the glory of the God alone who is good (Mark 10:18).