The Apostle Paul and the Call to Discipleship

A major problem in Pauline theology today-- major not primarily because it is advanced among theologians or scholars but because it has taken deep roots and is confidently promoted throughout the Christian Church-- is the tendency to reduce Paul's gospel to something far more limited, far less pervasive, far less invasive in terms of what God seeks to do within and through those who put their faith in Jesus than Paul's own written testimony suggests. The result is that what having faith in Jesus even means is not itself well understood, since faith, to be faith at all, entails a wholehearted commitment to the person of Christ that must also transform the life of a person. Paul's understanding of the call to discipleship (the call to a living, saving faith) did not differ from Jesus' own call-- which was not "believe in the effectiveness of my death and resurrection, and you'll be saved no matter what" but "if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:34-35)
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David deSilva, Transformation: The Heart of Paul's Gospel, p. 5.