Mahatma Gandhi has been credited with saying the following, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” After doing some research it doesn’t appear that he actually ever said this, but that is the paraphrase of some things he did say. As a Christian, it pains me when I see the way my faith is viewed by society. There are so many people who profess to be Christians who don’t live the way the Bible teaches and don’t see anything wrong with the way they live. There are also Christians who love the Lord and give up much of their lives to serving him. We’re imperfect. Human. I get it. One thing I find really interesting though is that a lot of people don’t have issues with Jesus and His teachings. Whether you believe He was just a man with some good teachings on how to love people well or you believe that He was God incarnate as man, He was real, existed, and is one of the most influential people to have ever walked on this earth. What did He actually teach though?
This is something I’ve been studying for years of my life because as a Christian (i. e. Christ-follower) it means everything to me. I believe that the Bible is inerrant, without error, and that means everything that Jesus said is the very Word of God spoken to me. My believing and non-believing friends alike think that Jesus taught a way of living that is good, but they don’t always realize the controversial topics he covered. I spent several weeks pouring over the first four books of the New Testament known as the Gospels. This is the part of the Bible where Jesus actually walked on the earth so we can listen to what He said directly. Over the next few blog posts I want to examine what He said because I think it’s relevant to everyone. These posts are going to be for Christians and non-Christians alike because I want people to critically think about what Jesus said and the implications that means for their lives.
A little background into the life of Jesus is necessary to understand where He’s coming from. There are 3 aspects of God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. While each is independent of each other, they are also the same and equally important. This is kind of difficult for us to understand but think of it like water. Water can be liquid, solid, or a gas yet it is still water. God the Father is the part of God that is in heaven. God the Holy Spirit is the part of God given to Christians when they turn their lives over to God. It’s what empowers them to go through life. God the Son is the part of God that came as a human to earth and this is Jesus Christ. He came to earth through the virgin Mary and was part-God and part-man. God enabled this to happen to her because, well, He’s God and can do whatever He wants. He wanted to show us an example of how to live our lives in service to God so He sent part of Himself to do it.
The crazy thing is that the Jews were expecting a Jesus-like figure but couldn’t see it for what He was whenever He actually arrived on earth. They wanted a military figure that could lead their troops in battle and free them from the Roman oppression. Jesus was basically the opposite of that though because He came to establish a “heavenly kingdom.” He established a way for man to reach God without going through ritualistic sacrifices because He became the sacrifice needed for the atonement of man. That comes later though. I just wanted to show that Jesus was part-God and part-man and was born of the lineage of David because that is what was promised. Now let’s dig into the teachings.
Let’s start with why He came to earth in His own words. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. “31 Jesus replied to them, ‘The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” (Luke 5:31-32) A sinner is anyone who has done wrong of any sort (they have sinned). If we’re being honest that means everyone who has ever lived, except Jesus who lived a perfect life. I definitely fall under this category. Jesus relates our situation as a sinner to be a sick patient in need of a doctor in which He has the cure. Our disease is sin which is part of being human unfortunately. Ever since Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3 if you want more information) every person since then has done wrong at some point in their lives. Even after becoming a Christian I still struggle with sin daily. Thank you God for your forgiveness and mercy.
What is so bad about this disease “sin” though? Sin separates us from God is the simple answer. God is perfect and can’t allow sin into His presence in heaven so sin is what will send us to hell. When I talk about hell I’m not talking about a place where a horned devil is poking everyone with a pitch fork running around in fire. “49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous, 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:49-50) Jesus and many other places in Scripture describe hell as a place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It’s also described as a very dark place with intense suffering. The worst part about it is that the presence of God is not there. Hell is a reality whether you would like to admit it or not. So who are the “righteous” people mentioned in the verse above that won’t go there?
The righteous people are God’s people who have made Christ Lord of their life. You may have heard the Christian term “saved” and that’s where it comes from. It comes from the fact that their soul is saved for eternity because of a belief and trust in God (who is also Jesus). The incredible part is that this salvation is NOT exclusive though. “17 When Jesus heard this, He told them, ‘Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.’” (Mark 2:17) Sound familiar? Jesus also had to repeat Himself often. He didn’t come just for all the people inside of a church building who claim to be a Christian. He came for the prostitute, drug dealer, murderer, businessman, stay at home mom, barista, and every other type of person you can think about. He came to rescue the sinners. He came to rescue you and me. That’s the beauty of the message of the Bible.
That’s the reality of the world we live in. Jesus came to earth as a man to rescue us from our sin so that we could spend eternity with Him instead of separated from Him. I’m going to try and not drag on in these posts because I know that will lose some people. I plan on releasing another post weekly until I feel like I cover enough material. One of the points of these blogs is to open a dialogue. I hope that Christians and non-Christians alike read these and are encouraged knowing more about the life of Jesus and what His teachings mean for us today.
In Love,
-Bill
