Monday, November 10, 2008
The Real Jesus
Classical Presbyterian has written quite eloquently about discovering the "real" Jesus.
The same danger Toby escapes here in the phrase, "the Jesus I now knew..." remains in it. Christ, member of the Trinity - Holy God - CREATOR - is beyond the full knowledge and comprehension of we the created. We never know Jesus, we are always knowing. We do not ever discover Christ, but we are always discovering. Toby describes wonderfully the process many of us that grow up in the denominational traditions go through, but the process is not complete, nor can it ever be. Which brings me to my second comment.
There is a tendency with each of us, when we discover some new facet of our Lord to latch onto that facet as somehow definitive. Such can never be, remember Christ is, truly and ultimately, beyond our comprehension. There are two ramifications to this fact. The first is that the only possible response we can have to this is humility. The second is that our ideological opponent almost always has a point in there somewhere.
And now onto the third comment. Note that vision of Christ presented here is not idle but active, and yet active in a fashion that we have yet to get our heads truly around. "He dodged political questions, confounded worldly authorities and religious leaders." Christ came to change the world, but He is doing so in a way that, like Himself, is beyond our understanding.
As I grow in my faith, I come increasingly to understand that I am on a journey the end of which I do not know, nor will I be allowed to know until I arrive. I will always be discovering, learning, stretching, growing. I will never be in control becasue I do not know where I am going.
I think that last sentence is the hardest thing about being a Christian. Most of us, even "in process," like to have enough understanding of the that process and its end result that we have a sense of control. But it is precisely that sense of control that Christ seeks to remove from us. With it gone, there is only Christ, and even then there is only faith in Him, for we do not fully know Him either. Seems like very unsure footing to me.
But is it really?
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Instead, I found myself longing, with an unquenchable, unending longing for the Jesus that I met in the Bible. And so, here I was a baptized professing believer, a pastor, husband and father, finally meeting the Jesus of the Bible!Just a few comments...
The Jesus that I learned of in seminary and the mainline churches was a Jesus quite unlike the Jesus that I was seeing now. The Jesus of seminary was a Jesus that had to wait, he was a Jesus who longed and who hoped for more from us. This version of Jesus stood at the door knocking, calling, but who was forced to wait and see what we would do with His message. Being committed to nonintervention, this Jesus waited to see how we would vote and organize for societal transformation through confrontation with worldly powers.
This seminary, mainline Jesus was never quite satisfied, never fully reigning but always ready for it, if the conditions were right and we organized ourselves well enough in our churches, political enterprises and ecumenical associations.
But after my conversion to Biblical orthodoxy, I found that the Jesus I now knew and could see in the Bible was a gracious Savior of souls, who came to earth and bled and died to save His people from their fully-earned condemnation. The eternal life that He accomplished in his cross and resurrection was a completed thing, a perfect accomplishment that was not only for now, but it was forever.
The Jesus I now knew was confrontational, unwilling to sit idly by and let His children be condemned to eternal subjection to the Enemy of his Father. So, Jesus lived a sinless life, gave us His commandments and died and rose again to perfectly save all of His children, not losing a single one. He dodged political questions, confounded worldly authorities and religious leaders. He redeemed people from poverty and wealth, Jew and Gentile, slave and free.
The same danger Toby escapes here in the phrase, "the Jesus I now knew..." remains in it. Christ, member of the Trinity - Holy God - CREATOR - is beyond the full knowledge and comprehension of we the created. We never know Jesus, we are always knowing. We do not ever discover Christ, but we are always discovering. Toby describes wonderfully the process many of us that grow up in the denominational traditions go through, but the process is not complete, nor can it ever be. Which brings me to my second comment.
There is a tendency with each of us, when we discover some new facet of our Lord to latch onto that facet as somehow definitive. Such can never be, remember Christ is, truly and ultimately, beyond our comprehension. There are two ramifications to this fact. The first is that the only possible response we can have to this is humility. The second is that our ideological opponent almost always has a point in there somewhere.
And now onto the third comment. Note that vision of Christ presented here is not idle but active, and yet active in a fashion that we have yet to get our heads truly around. "He dodged political questions, confounded worldly authorities and religious leaders." Christ came to change the world, but He is doing so in a way that, like Himself, is beyond our understanding.
As I grow in my faith, I come increasingly to understand that I am on a journey the end of which I do not know, nor will I be allowed to know until I arrive. I will always be discovering, learning, stretching, growing. I will never be in control becasue I do not know where I am going.
I think that last sentence is the hardest thing about being a Christian. Most of us, even "in process," like to have enough understanding of the that process and its end result that we have a sense of control. But it is precisely that sense of control that Christ seeks to remove from us. With it gone, there is only Christ, and even then there is only faith in Him, for we do not fully know Him either. Seems like very unsure footing to me.
But is it really?
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