It seems to me that you were doing great, up to a point. You mentioned "believing there’s a God", "committing your life to God", and "following the ways of Jesus". Those are, as you say, different things.

As I read it, your essay intrigued me. I have my own opinion of this domain, so I really liked it as you repeated "teaching" and "disciple means student". This looked great because I'm all with that and I have an opinion of what he taught. I get annoyed that people seem to just think of Jesus instead of the lesson which was his purpose. Then you said "honesty" "Because that’s what’s going to change the world". That sounds ok though I don't know how that's going to change the world. It's different than I was hoping for. I think there is more value to his message of "love one another". I can see how that message could change the world... especially these days. Still, let's see where you are going with this. Oh crud: "all the life-changing power and glory of the Lord God Almighty". Dang, Jesus never mentioned that part. That seems like rock star worship that is so common instead of focusing on his purpose which was his message. No more mention of honesty, just worship God. You lost it. That goes nowhere and isn't appealing to most people. It serves no purpose because God doesn't need worship and Jesus brought his message to benefit people.

Let's start over at "honesty" and instead focus on "love one another". Honesty has limited utility. I study how humans can survive long term by genetic and strategic adaptation to the new world we've been creating. I've written books on it. The strategy part can to a large extent be boiled down to "love one another" instead of the endless, mindless, red of tooth and claw, competition that nature usually focuses on, and that Rome was really good at. Luckily, we do have instincts for cooperation, corresponding to the rapid increase of brain size that occurred we left the trees, say 6 million years ago. So, considering that lesson of "love one another" and the amazing importance of it, maybe focus on, as you said, Jesus as a teacher. Let's call him a special kind of teacher, more even than a priest, he was a philosopher. The whole God and magic part tends to be off putting to people in this day and age, so let's leave that off and call Jesus one of the greatest philosophers of all time? Back in his day, since they were calling Caesars Gods and deifying great warriors like Alexander, can you imagine what they would think of such a rare and wise moral philosopher? I wouldn't be surprised if they called him a God too. Many warriors and Gods in history, and rock stars have been forgotten, how much do they help us today, but clearly we still remember that great philosopher, Jesus, because his message helped people survive the horrors of Rome and still seems so valuable today. According to my years of study about a strategy that can offer humans a path to long term survival as more than animals, his message will continue to serve humanity for a long time. Thank Jesus for the gift of that message. I think it's what he wanted the most and far more than he wanted worship.