Robert E Rasmussen.com

The infinite multiplication of the gospel cycle could be called a “gospel fractal.”

A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop (from FractalFoundation.org). Search the internet for images of fractals and you will see the beautiful designs created by repetition of the same pattern.

Fractals are prolific in the natural world which God created. Some of the fractal images reveal repeated patterns in, for example, the structure of leaves, vegetables and fruit. Take a look from the heavens and you will see fractals in cloud formations, and rivers carved in hillsides by rain. Observe the fractals in underwater coral and plant life. All of these and many more show the repeated pattern of growth set in place by God. See my former post called The Gospel Fractal here.

How amazing to see that the gospel cycle forms fractals in our spiritual life as disciples. It resembles a fractal in that its simple four-segment pattern repeats without limit throughout all of our earthly life. (Who knows what part it might play in our eternal life with God!) The gospel fractal is scalable, meaning that the same pattern is present in very tiny segments of time – such as a decision or a glance – all the way up to those lasting years. In fact, I believe the pattern extends to multi-generational families, organizations, even nations, and extending over eras. These gospel fractals are transpiring in each of our lives, on various levels small and great, simultaneously.

In each and every case, we are drawn into closer fellowship with God, who established the pattern, who empowers their development by His Spirit, and who garners an abundance of glory for the Son throughout the whole world in every generation! Do we not see the genius and motivation of God in this? As the variegated fractals of the gospel burst out from disciples of every age, gender, language and nation, and in every era, Jesus receives increasing glory while we are conformed to His glorious image! Praise be to the wondrous God of the gospel!

Equipped with this understanding of the gospel cycle, we now will carry it with us into real life to see specifically how God matures us, from newborn babies to mature disciples who can survive in any terrain.

Back to index.

One of our deepest desires is to draw nearer to God in prayer. We often do not know how to pray in a way that pleases God. Nothing could be more in line with the will of God than the seminal work of Christ in the gospel cycle. Therefore, the gospel cycle provides a pattern by which the disciple can gain confidence in prayer. Wherever we find ourselves in the gospel process, we can align our prayers with God’s purpose in that stage. This helps us know how to pray in His will both for ourselves and for others we love. It even helps us know how to pray for those we don’t know, or find it hard to love!

How do we know what to pray at the different way-points along the Jesus way? The best place to begin is with the prayers of Jesus as He fulfilled His mission.

Prayers of surrender. In His surrender in Gethsemane, Jesus labored in prayer literally for hours, repeatedly wrestling with the Father until He could honestly pray, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:36). It is bold to say but nonetheless true: Every work which God wants to do in your life must begin with your surrender. It is always His will for you to surrender to Him, no matter what the need or problem is. Surrender always opens the gospel cycle, and without it the further unfolding of the pattern will be inhibited. As you intercede for others, you will be surprised at how frequently the true need in their situation is to surrender in a new and deeper way to God. You cannot make another person surrender to God’s will, but you can fervently ask the Spirit of God to do that work in the one you care about.

Prayers of sacrifice.   Jesus must not have ceased praying as He endured Golgotha! We have just a few specific prayers recorded from what must have been a continual calling out to the Father for strength. The essence of Jesus’ prayers helps us in praying through seasons when life demands extreme sacrifices.”My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (Matt. 27:46b). In a sense this is one prayer that only Jesus could pray, for His sin-bearing demanded temporary separation from holy God (2 Cor. 5:21. Yet in a lesser way, we may experience darkness of soul that makes this kind of prayer appropriate.

Jesus also prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). In praying for ourselves and others, as we proceed through days of great sacrifice, it is always in the will of God for us to plead for grace toward others. Even where the offender does know what he is doing, our calling is to extend grace.

The core of praying in times of sacrifice is encapsulated in Jesus’ prayer, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’” (Luke 23:46). When God has asked you to give up something or someone dear, your ultimate prayer is to fully entrust all that you are to Him. This essence of true sacrifice is the most demanding, yet most liberating posture possible to any disciple.

Prayers of abiding.   Your seasons in the tomb may be devoid of prayer. Grief, delay, sadness, and confusion may make it impossible to pray. Others for whom you pray may be unable to pray for themselves such that your intercession is a great way to come alongside them. It is important that you not pressure another to pray when in fact God may have drawn them into a season of quietly abiding.

Burial-like seasons may afford you extended times of solitude and silence in which you need not make any effort to express your thoughts to God. In such times, prayer consists of waiting, listening, and even wondering.

Prayers of abiding may follow after times of pruning. God may have cleared away extraneous attachments in order to produce more fruit (Jn. 15:1-3). As a result, extended times when you are aware of abiding in Christ can produce prayers of hope. You may pray for fruitfulness to come, not only as you emerge from seasons in the tomb but even for the sweet fruit of mourning. This fruit is the kind offered by the woman who anointed Jesus with fragrant oil the night before His death (Mk. 14:3-9). He was pleased with her sensitivity to His impending death and burial.

Prayers of manifestation.   To put it mildly, Jesus was oriented to action after His resurrection. He told the women, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me”(Matt. 28:10). That was not a prayer to God, but it shows that Jesus intended to show His disciples that He was alive. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations….” (Matt. 28:19a). Jesus wants to be known and seen!

Whatever surrender, sacrifice and burial have demanded now becomes the substance for resurrection prayer. Pray for the joy of Christ to emerge out from the sadness and loss. Pray for the healing of Christ to replenish that which was ill. Pray for the power of Christ to dispel weakness, fear, and doubt. In essence, pray for Jesus to show up in the situation in the miraculous way that only He can.

Back to index

Disciples frequently need direction in life. We often desire to know what God is seeking to accomplish, especially when our experiences are confusing. The four markers along the Jesus way help us locate our position on the trail. I call this the gospel GPS. We can now return to the three questions posed in the introduction of the trail guide.

Where am I on the trail? Because you know Jesus’ experience, and because you know that God guides you repeatedly through that same pattern of experiences, you therefore know that if God is asking that you surrender to Him, that you are in Gethsemane, as Jesus was. You know that if He is asking you to give something up to Him as a sacrifice, then you have come to a kind of Golgotha. If you are in a season of grieving, loss, or waiting, then you are in a kind of burial. And, perhaps unbeknownst to you, if Jesus is manifesting His life through you, God is granting you a resurrection-like experience. Knowing where you are on the trail helps you to rejoice over where you have been, where you are, and where you are headed.

What does Jesus want from me in this current experience? Understanding this pattern, you now know how you can cooperate with God in each of the four aspects. Gethsemane will only be satisfied as you surrender, declaring “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Golgotha is the time of sacrifice, in which you say, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” Your season in the tomb asks that you abide in Christ, waiting with Him for as long as is required. And resurrection liberates you to rejoice that Jesus is being displayed in your life, and through you to others.

Where is the trail ultimately leading? Because of the consistency of the pattern, you can anticipate what is ahead. You know that if you are at a Gethsemane, in which God is asking you to surrender your will to His, that He will next ask you to follow through and sacrifice that which He has required. Following that, an expression of burial will come, which will yield finally to the risen Jesus Christ being manifested through you more fully because you have gone through yet another rendition of the pattern of the Jesus way.

Another way to think of this is to work backward. Doing so helps to review and better understand what God has done in your past. If you want to know where the risen Jesus is manifesting Himself in your life, look for the ways God has asked you to grieve a loss, or wait for the fulfillment of a dream. Look for the ways you have sought to abide with Christ. Your resurrection-like experiences will appear where you have experienced a kind of burial. Similarly, if you want to know where God is asking you to abide in Christ, look for the way in which He has asked you to sacrifice for Him. What has God asked you to lay down at the foot of the cross? That is your call to Golgotha. And should you wonder what that sacrifice was, look further back for a time and place when God found you in your Gethsemane and asked you to surrender to Him, yielding your will to His will for your life.

Here is a summary of the historical event in Jesus’ life, the way Jesus led in each aspect, and our task as those who follow Him.

Back to index.

There is a prevalent teaching which says that when we encounter a trial, our goal as disciples should be to pass the test. Some teach that we should seek to learn the lesson which God is trying to teach so that we do not have to go through it again. This teaching is well-meant, but an inadequate understanding of God’s ways. Yes, our gospel cycles give us lessons to learn in our spiritual growth, but there are many benefits to gain, and much glory to give, in the continual expressions of the gospel cycle. For in dying and living the gospel we experience the presence of God more deeply in our lives. We do so in at least three ways.

Intimacy with Christ. As Jesus meets us along the trail, we learn of His gospel work not just academically but in our spiritual experience. Over time, we grow in our intimacy with Christ, and deepen our worship of Him. The ministry of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, cheers us through each challenge along the Jesus way.

Conformity to Christ. Every time we surrender, we become more like Jesus who surrendered. As we sacrifice for Him, we become more like the One who died a sacrificial death on the cross. As we abide in Him, Jesus draws near and abides in us. And as we manifest the living Christ, He shows that He lives, resurrected, in and through us.

Purpose in life. The greatest outcome of our continually dying and living the gospel is that, in so doing, we live out the most magnificent purpose of human existence, which is to honor and display the Son of God in His seminal work on earth. There is no higher purpose than to give oneself fully to, and to become one with, the mission of God in saving humankind for the glory of the Son.

You can see, therefore, why it is woefully inadequate to wish that we could avoid experiencing the gospel cycle, for to do so would lessen our maturation as disciples and, most importantly, detract from the glory due to the Son of God. Though many expressions of the gospel cycle are difficult, they should nevertheless be humbly embraced as the most profound means by which we can live our earthly years for the glory of God!

Back to index

Since this pattern is central to our faith, we should not be surprised to find it embedded in various aspects of our corporate life in the church. Here are some key examples.

Water baptism. The initial declaration of saving faith is water baptism. The immersion of the new believer into water, as practiced by Philip with the Ethiopian convert (Acts:38-39), pictures the death and burial of the believer only to be raised up into new life in the risen Christ. Water baptism is emblematic of the spiritual death, burial, and resurrection of the new disciple.

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

This verse speaks of the spiritual transformation that happens in the soul of every new believer at the moment of saving faith. This inner reality is wonderfully depicted physically in water baptism.

The Lord’s Supper. Jesus instituted His table of covenant communion on the eve of His crucifixion. Only hours after He took the bread and cup, He was in Gethsemane wrestling with the calling of the cross. Notice that Jesus’ death and resurrection are embedded in the simple ceremony He gave to us:

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, ‘This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Matt. 14:22-25).

Our continual participation in the Lord’s Table is a remembrance of His body which was willingly sacrificed on behalf of the sins of the whole world. It calls us to reflect on His blood which was shed for the pardon of sin (1 Cor. 11:23-26). Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, we are welcomed into the fellowship of the table established by Christ Himself and there remember the essence of our discipleship. It is a time to confess any sin that has dislodged us from following His pattern of obedience. And we would do well to celebrate the privilege we have of living out His example.

Spiritual disciplines.   Many of the spiritual disciplines given to disciples for maturation follow the pattern of surrender, sacrifice, abiding and manifestation. Among such disciplines are Sabbath, fasting, solitude, study, meditation, memorization, and acts of service. Each of them calls us back to the cross, that we may lay in wait as we abide with Christ, only to draw on His life for newness and abundance. We will explore these disciplines in the final section of the trail guide.

Try to keep this in mind next time you enjoy a communion service!

Back to index.

(Picture credit: sacerdotus.com)