The Great Omission from The Great Commission

In Dallas Willard's book, The Great Omission, he makes this statement:

But in place of Christ’s plan, historical drift has substituted “Make converts (to a particular ‘faith and practice’) and baptize them into church membership.” This causes two great omissions from the Great Commission to stand out. Most important, we start by omitting the making of disciples and enrolling people as Christ’s students, when we should let all else wait for that. Then we also omit, of necessity, the step of taking our converts through training that will bring them ever-increasingly to do what Jesus directed.  ¹Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (pp. 5-6). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

That sounds bad.  It falls right in line with this series on becoming a "grown-again Christian".  The main point of this series is to show how to move beyond being born-again - being baptized - and becoming more Christ-like.  Grown-again.

Notice, the quote begins with the word "but".  That means something important came just before the quote I started with.  Actually, there are two important thoughts before this paragraph.  One is what Dallas Willard calls "The Great Disparity".  The other is "The Great Omission".

The Great Disparity

Let's begin with The Great Disparity

We'll find out in a moment what the Great Disparity is.  You probably want to know that first.  Right now.  But let's stay with the order in which it's presented in the book.

Transformation into goodness is what the “Good News” is all about…isn’t it?

Of course it is.  But do we really understand what the transformation is?  Here's the only time the word transform actually appears in the NIV translation.  It's used by Paul.

Pressing on Toward the Goal

Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This is part of Paul's letter to the Philippian church.  Because of the part where Paul says, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus, I think it's important to look at a timeline of Paul's life - from Christianity Today.  As you read it, keep in mind that Paul is still working to "win the prize", as he uses a sports description.

The Apostle Paul’s Birth & Education

So we see Paul is in his 50's when he wrote this letter - and made the statement that he's still pressing towards the goal.  Not reached it.  But pressing towards it.  Furthermore, while he's only been what we would call a Christian for about twenty years, his entire life was spent studying God.  This would have to be the case, otherwise he never would have been accepted to study under Gamaliel.  And after all that - Paul is still pressing towards the goal.