I've been thinking a bit lately about the WHY of disciple making.
Why make disciples? What's the big reason? What's the big WHY?

Of course, the quick, obvious answer has to do with obedience. Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples. Matthew 28. Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. The core command is make disciples. And so as those disciples made more disciples, including us down the line, the command still stands to be involved in that mission of making disciples. So raw obedience is definitely a WHY.

But why, out of all the things Jesus could have told his disciples to do to engage in, why did he focus on making more disciples?
I believe there's three big reasons why disciple making is so critical, so important in the grand scheme, in the big picture of things.
The first reason has to do with the inherent value of people. God created people in his image for relationship with him.

That was the point of this whole planet. Ultimately, we know that relationship was broken through sin, and yet Jesus came and died to restore that relationship. That's how important that relationship is. God values people. The most important thing you'll ever lay eyes on this planet is people. More valuable than gold, more valuable than Bitcoin, more valuable than real estate or anything else you can imagine. It's people.

Missionary Danny Ost made this comment: "Win the lost at any cost because people last forever."

People. They're incredibly valuable. And so when we're called to make disciples, we're called to be involved in bringing people back to that relationship or into that relationship for which God created them. People are incredibly valuable.

Layered on top of this incredible value of people is the reality of eternity. Eternity is something that we cannot wrap our heads around. My understanding is that people who have a certain mental capacity can kind of understand a million. Almost nobody can understand a billion. And once we get into a trillion and beyond we really can't wrap our heads around it. The numbers are just too big. Eternity is millions upon millions and billions upon billions and trillions upon trillions. We just can't fathom it. And yet Eternity is where we will spend most of our existence, either in relationship with God or out of relationship with our Creator.

So when you add the inherent incredible value of people alongside the reality of eternity, that underscores the rationale, the WHY for disciple making. People are incredibly valuable. Eternity is real and mind bogglingly long. And so we make disciples so that people can spend eternity in relationship with their Creator. And so in the meantime, they can be involved in bringing others into that relationship with their creator.

But if we pan back, I believe there's an even bigger WHY.

It says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Every time I get outside, summer, winter, spring, fall doesn't really matter what the weather's doing, God's fingerprints are everywhere. Whether it's the sound of the birds, the sound of the waves, the blue of the water, the sky. God's glory is displayed everywhere. The third big WHY For disciple making, which is really probably the umbrella WHY, the biggest WHY for disciple making is the glory of God.
God created everything. It displays his glory. God created people for relationship with himself so they could share in understanding and seeing his glory. The relationship was broken and so for his glory he made a way back into relationship with him through Jesus. And when we're involved in disciple making, and people come into relationship with Jesus and start walking with him and living on mission with him, God is glorified. It points back to him, the Creator.

In fact, at the end of Romans chapter 11, after we've walked through 11 chapters of this rich theology and seeing what God has done through creation, and the people of Israel and through Jesus and the resurrection and all these things, it says right at the end of Romans 11: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? For from him and through him, and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever."

So why engage in the great cause of disciple making? Well, we have eternity. It's a reality. It's longevity. We have the value of people who are inherently, almost infinitely valuable. And we have the glory of God. God is glorified as people come into relationship with him and get to spend eternity in relationship with him, which was the reason for which they were created. And then we in eternity will be witnesses of his greatness and his glory.

So when we make disciples, we are participating in the grand plan of creation and redemption, bringing people into relationship with their creator. Recruiting witnesses for the glory of God for all eternity.

​That's WHY we make disciples.