Why everyone loves Jesus like they love Play Doh

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My 2 year old daughter Ellie loves Play Doh.  I know I am a minority in this, but I have never liked Play Doh.  I am not sure if it’s the feeling of Play Doh under my finger nails, or the lack of creativity my brain has, or what.  But I have never been a huge fan.  But I do understand the reason why so many (including my daughter) love it.  It puts you in charge.  You get to be the boss and make whatever you want, for whatever purpose you want, to whatever end that you want.  In other words, it allows you to create and enjoy all the things that accompany creating.  However, no matter how good you are at Play Doh, your potential is quite limited.  Perhaps if we had something of much greater influence that moved, formed, and did our bidding it would be more interesting to me.

I am not really sure.

Have you ever noticed how many different Jesuses (how do you spell the plural form of Jesus?) there are presented to us in our day.  There are political Jesuses (Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Communist, etc.).  There are religious Jesuses (Gnostic Jesus, Jehovah Witness Jesus, Mormon Jesus, Muslim Jesus, Christian Jesus, Hindu Jesus, etc.)  This is not even to mention how Jesus has been consumerized onto T-shirts, rubber duckies, posters, backpacks, movies, bracelets, etc.

How can we know the true Jesus?  And why is everyone wanting a Jewish man from a no name town that lived roughly 2,000 years ago on their team?  These are the two questions I hope to answer in this post.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

When we consider how we me may get to have a more accurate understanding of who Jesus is it is important that we establish we are actually talking about a real flesh and blood person. This really isn’t up for debate. Nearly all historical scholars from all biases acknowledge that the fact Jesus was born in Bethlehem, from Nazareth, lived and taught and performed many signs in Galilee, that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate was buried in a tomb and on Sunday His tomb was found empty, and lastly, that many eye witnesses claimed to have seen Him in His resurrected state. Obviously, whatever one’s bias is will determine how they interpret all this evidence. But the evidence is crystal clear.

Secondary Sources

That being the case, when we seek to know the true historical Jesus it is important to interact with sources that are closest to the time when Jesus existed. Contrary to popular belief there is much written in the 1st and 2nd century concerning Jesus and His early followers who made up the Church. For your research, I would commend, Pliny the Younger’s work “On Christians” or the famous “Works of Josephus” or Ignatius’ letters “Letter to Trallians” and “Letter to Romans” or Irenaeus’ work “Against Heresies” or Eusebius on “Church History” or “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” or Justin Martyr’s work “First Apology”. In any case, we can learn much about Jesus from writers who lived during the time of Jesus or are removed by only 1 to 3 generations from Him.

Primary Sources

But the single best works that exist to help us know the true historical Jesus would be to look at the biographies written by the men who lived and walked with Jesus Himself for over three years. These are eye-witness accounts of what Jesus had said and done. These works are commonly known as the Gospels. There are four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Unreliable Ancient Sources

There are only four canonical Gospels because the other Gospels known as the Gnostic Gospels were written a hundred plus years removed from Christ by men who never saw, heard, or touched Jesus. In fact, the writers of the Gnostic Gospels wrote under a Pseudonym or false name to give themselves credibility. But none of the original recipients believed they were written by the proclaimed writer. In addition, textual criticism and other examination has shown that the writers weren’t even from the area in which Jesus lived and ministered, died, or rose. In other words, the Gnostic Gospel were among the first to manipulate a Jesus to their liking to gain credibility or influence like my two year plays with Play Doh. That being the case, the Gnostic Gospels are not helpful for understanding who the true Jesus is, rather they are helpful in understanding what some people believed about Jesus in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century in the Roman Empire.

Where The True Jesus Is Found

So my commendation for us would be, to truly know who Jesus is and what He taught, did, and believed about Himself, we must be very familiar with the eye witness accounts of Jesus found in the books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In addition, in the rest of the New Testament we find out more about what Jesus taught His followers and as a result what He would want us to believe.

I must follow up with something fundamental and crucial. The eye-witnesses claim to be not only writing from what they observed, they claim to be writing the very words of God Himself. So the perspective they give is not merely a fallen man’s perspective, but rather, from an omniscient point of view. So though, we ought to approach these works as historical genre. We cannot merely come to them as that. They are authoritative on our lives as well.

WHY EVERYONE WANTS JESUS ON THEIR SIDE

The bottom line is this. Jesus is LORD of heaven and earth. He said as much in Matthew 28:18,

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

So who wouldn’t want Jesus on their team right? Even those who do not acknowledge the Bible as authoritative still can’t shrug off the real influence and power that Jesus has over every sphere of life. Jesus authority is very real make no doubts about it. And so is self-deception. So is it any wonder that the masses create a Jesus to their liking and then comfort themselves that He is on their team. If a business owner sees a way to make a buck by using Jesus, they’ll take it. If a politician sees a way to guilt people onto His side by using Jesus, he’ll do it. If a religious leader can get a bigger following and deepen his pockets or increase his influence and power, he’ll do it. The list can go on. But this begs the question.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Here is the reality. Jesus isn’t on any of our teams because He is LORD of heaven and earth. The real question for us is, am I and you on His team? We don’t get to draft Jesus on our teams because He is the owner, boss, creator, potter, LORD of us and we are His Play Doh. We don’t get to shape Jesus into our image. He makes us into His or He damns us. It is either the one or the other. He will damn all those who continue to commit treason to His lordship over them. But He will graciously, lovingly, powerfully, miraculously conform those who submit and put their trust in Him into His glorious image.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? –Jesus (Matthew 16:24-26)

Why God’s Holiness (Still) Matters

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(photo obtained from http://www.daviddarling.info/images/mountain.jpg)

I want to start this post with a bold claim.
 
Without God’s holiness there would be no cross of Christ.
 

Allow me to explain.  Love was a motivation for God to send His Son. But love is not the reason God had to send His Son. It was God’s holiness that demanded atonement. And so, if God were not holy, there would be no cross.  In the words of A.H. Strong, “Love chastens…but only holiness punishes.”

Today, I think Western Civilization has much to say about love and tolerance. Sadly, it does not have much to say about holiness and righteousness. Yet, these are the very truths about God that undergird love and tolerance. If there is no holy, what is worthy of our affections? And if there is no righteousness, what is there to tolerate and be long-suffering with?

The reality is we have been made to love and worship the Holy One. And when we take our eyes off of God, we as a people are the ones that suffer. Because we do not cease to worship and love, rather, we love and worship little things that are not big enough for all people in all times to love and worship. And so, in the end, we war and fight over what we think must be loved and worshipped.

Christians, we have been given a message that changes the hearts of men and women. It is a message that gives “new hearts” that love and worship that which is most lovely and good. Tell them about Jesus Christ! He is the Holy One of God! He is worthy of all our praise! And He will bring together all the nations to peace, unity, love, and holiness!  Only God is sufficient to bring the unity that we so badly long for.  So long as we reject His Son Jesus Christ, we also reject peace.  And ironically, we in our pursuit of love, apart from God’s holiness, end up putting to death love.  This truth will largely inform not only our concept of love, but also influence how we are to love.  And this is why much of what is being done today in the name of love is sadly harmful and is similar to a doctor not informing a patient they have cancer in hopes of not ruining their patient’s fun-filled planned day.  Let us not be deceived brethren.  Our message of love does not begin there.  It begins with a holy God who is zealous for His glory to be made known because He alone is worthy.

Freedom Found in Submission

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The Great Question

What is your highest authority?  I mean, when it gets down to it all, what exactly is your base line or foundational authority that influences all your decisions.  What exactly is that chief authority in your life from which you measure everything?

Perhaps it is Logic or Reasoning

I don’t think this is the case for most.  But perhaps you fall in this category.  When you are deciding on: what is right or wrong, what is true and untrue, what you will submit to and rebel against, you always make your basis from reason.  But then, if reason or logic is your final authority, what is your logical reason for why murdering the innocent is wrong? Here is a great mystery that you know it to be wrong but cannot give a logic or reason based explanation.

Perhaps it is Practical or Results Based

Do you find yourself measuring the rightness of a practice based upon the results it yields?  This parenting method is right because of the results.  This law is bad because look at all the division it has caused.  This church is doing it right because look at their success. But then, what do you do when your goals and someone else’s conflict? And how do you know your desired results are the right desired results? Here is a great mystery that you deeply long for good results and yet have no solid basis for how to discern a good result from a bad result.

Perhaps it is Emotions or Feelings

This is where I believe the large bulk of most humanity begin.  When you hear something that makes you angry have you ever considered why that made you angry? When someone behaves in a way that upsets someone else, do you conclude the one who is hurt to be a victim? When you are upset, hurt, angry, offended do conclude the offender to be automatically in the wrong? Do you base a right choice from a wrong choice based upon how it “jives with you” or feels? But if emotions are your final authority, how do you reconcile that your emotional responses not only differ from other people, but that your emotional responses are not even consistent within itself? Here is a great mystery that you feel greatly about so much yet have no way to measure right emotional responses with wrong emotional responses.

The Similarities Among All These Standards

What intrigues me about all of these standards is that all of them ultimately are making one’s self the highest authority.  All these standards are really just a front for making yourself your own master and lord.  It would appear at first glance that we are putting the ultimate authority on something outside of us, but in reality we are claiming ourselves to be god.  Is this not what the Bible warns and instructs would happen given our fallen state?  Is this not the epitome of what sin is?  Everyone doing what’s right in their own eyes.  In other words, when we seek to establish any other lord other than the One True God of the Holy Scriptures then we unleash absolute chaos. Here is a great mystery that in seeking our freedom from the Lordship of Jesus Christ we become slaves to everything.

The Final and Highest Authority

Because God is the creator and sustainer of all things He is also the Lord of all things.  But if God is the highest authority from which all things are measured, how do we know what God is like.  It is here that we understand why King David spoke of God’s Word as more precious than gold or silver.  Because in God’s Word we see God revealing Himself to us.  And so, when we learn about God we have a solid basis for measuring, right from wrong, truth from lie, wisdom from foolishness.  And it is in God’s Word that we learn that God has fully revealed Himself to us in His Son Jesus Christ. Here is a great mystery that Word of God has taken on flesh and dwelt among us. And that this God-man has come to reconcile us to the Father. Therefore, if we trust in Jesus Christ by submitting ourselves to Him and His teachings we will be saved!

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. -Matthew 7:24-29 (ESV)