Posted on 12/19/2014 1:30:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It’s no secret that those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ consistently fall short of living up to the way of life of our Rabbi. Being a disciple of Jesus is a lifelong journey towards conforming ourselves to the image and way of life that Jesus taught. However, so often, followers of Jesus chose to blatantly ignore some of the clearest instruction of our Rabbi and obscure it with vague theology so that we can get off the hook. Other times, followers of Jesus are taught something explicitly contradictory to the plain words of Jesus and then spend their lives obeying the instruction they received instead of the commands of Jesus.
However we end up at the place of disobedience, all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus struggle to obey the commands of our Lord. One of the most transformative periods in my faith was when I took time to re-read the Gospels of the New Testament and get reacquainted with Jesus’ himself, in his own words. As I studied the words of Jesus, I discovered that so much of what he asks of us as his disciples is incredibly clear and yet so much of it was new to me. I had never heard it in church or Sunday school or actually heard someone teach the exact opposite of the words of Christ. It was during that season of my life where I took inventory of how I lived and what I believed and aligned to the person and teachings of Christ that my faith was radically transformed for the better.
Below I have compiled a short list of 4 clear teachings of Jesus that most of us who exist within Evangelicalism have either never heard, refuse to acknowledge, or believe the exact opposite of. It’s my hope that by rereading these teachings of Christ, you will be inspired, like I have been, to return to the Gospels and begin to reshape your faith and life around the way and teachings of our Master, Jesus. Get ready and buckle up, because most of what Jesus says is pretty bold and potent. It’ll shake up your faith!
1. Jesus, not the Bible, is God’s living and active Word that brings life.
“You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. You study the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.”- John 5:39-40 HCSB
The Christian life is one that is fundamentally rooted in the reality that Jesus Christ is living and active. He interacts with us on a day to day basis and desires that we cultivate an intimate relationship with him. The more we commune with the Spirit of Christ, the more life and truth we are exposed to and are able to comprehend. However, for many Evangelicals, we rely more on the Bible than we do on the living and active Spirit of God within us. We fear that following the Spirit could lead to confusion and subjectivity and so we root our faith in the Bible. The problem is that a faith that is rooted in the Scripture alone is not sustainable. It will dry up and wither on the vine. While the Bible is an important and authoritative guide for Christian faith and practice, it isn’t the foundation or center of our faith- Jesus is. And if we truly believe that he is alive, we should also have faith that communing with him will produce spiritual life within us. He is the living Word that we can ask anything to and expect, in faith, to receive and answer. Sometimes he will speak through Scripture. Other times he will speak through our friends and family. Other times he will find unique and special ways to reveal himself to us. But in order to maintain a vibrant and living faith, we must not make the Bible our substitute for communion with the living Word of God. Studying Scripture is valuable, but nowhere near as valuable as cultivating a day to day relationship with the God incarnate.
2. The only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is through DOING the will of God.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 ESV
“An expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”“What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?”He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.“You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.”- Luke 10: 25-28 HCSB
“We are saved by faith alone, apart from works!” This is a very popular Protestant catch phrase. The doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) was developed by the Reformers in response to the Roman Catholic Churches corrupted teachings that emerged in the 16th Century teaching that one could gain favor with God and shave off years in Hell and Purgatory by giving money to the church or doing acts of penance. The intention of the doctrine of faith alone was very good- to correct the error that our salvation could be earned or that God’s grace could be manipulated. But like most doctrines that are formulated in response to another group’s doctrine, it often goes too far. One of the clearest teachings throughout all four Gospel accounts is that the way to enter the Kingdom of God is through living in obedience to the Law of Christ. Time and time again, Jesus makes very clear statements that condemn those who think that they will be saved because they believe the right things or do the right religious rituals. Jesus responds to people who believe they are religious and deserve heaven by saying that their outward religiosity is detestable to God and the only thing God desires is that they would exercise their faith by obeying the command of God- to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. (Micah 6:8) Jesus says if anyone claims to be right with God but doesn’t serve the poor, needy, oppressed, marginalized, sick, diseased, and sinful, then they do not have a relationship with God. No matter what they proclaim with their lips. No matter how religious they may appear. Jesus says those who don’t obey will have no part in his Kingdom. He makes very clear that the way to “inherit eternal life” is through loving God and loving our neighbor. Isn’t it astonishing, then, how many Christians today have been taught that salvation comes through right believing instead of right practice- a message that is fundamentally contrary to the words of Jesus. (And even more to his little brother James who says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” James 2:24 ESV)
3. Condemnation isn’t Jesus’ style.
“I have not come to condemn the world, but to save it.” John 3:17 ESV
“Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”- John 8:11 ESV
Many modern day Evangelical preachers spend a lot of time talking about the kinds of people that God is opposed to and who he condemns. They spend time talking about how to transition from a position of condemnation before God to a position of Grace through believing the right things about Jesus. They often talk about those who disagree or live contrary to their understanding of what is “righteous” as those who are under condemnation from God. But what’s funny is that as one examines the teachings and life of Jesus, we find him not only befriending, loving, and affirming some of his societies most despised and vile people, but chastising the religious leaders who condemned them for their sin. Whether it is Jesus’ conversation with Rabbi Niccodemus in John 3 where Christ explains that it is his mission to redeem the world and not to condemn it or the instance where a woman is caught in the act of adultery and is taken outside to be stoned by the religious officials (as the law required) and Jesus steps in to stop the condemnation and proclaim freedom and forgiveness to the broken woman, it is clear that Jesus is not in the condemning business. Instead, it seems Christ is in the business of restoring humanity to the most broken and wicked of people. It seems that his passion is to see the weak, sick, and broken become strong, healthy, and whole in his Kingdom. It seems that he spends very little time (almost none) telling sinners why they’re wrong or speaking words of condemnation over them, but rather practically loving and extending grace to the most screwed up of individuals. Maybe we Evangelicals, who are known for our condemnation of entire people groups with whom we disagree, could learn something from Jesus on this point.
4. You’re supposed to sacrifice yourself and speak words of blessings for those you disagree with the most.
“Love Your Enemies and Bless Those Who Persecute You” Matthew 5:44 ESV
It seems like every week there is a new major controversy taking place within the Church. Most of the time, the situation revolves around one group of Christians disagreeing with another and then taking to the internet to write slanderous posts about the other. If it’s not infighting, then it is Christians engaging in culture wars, working to defeat those whom we disagree with politically and socially by painting them as soul-less monsters. But that response is absolutely contrary to the way of Jesus. Jesus calls his followers to love the people they disagree with most and to speak blessings over them when all we really want to do is curse them out. No matter what the situation is or what kind of enemy we have, Christians are called to bless the people who hurt us the most. This includes in theological battles, political disagreements, national wars, and personal conflicts. Christians are called to a radical position of nonviolence and forgiveness, grace, and even blessing of our enemies. There is no way around it. And when Christians chose to ignore these clear teachings, our hypocrisy is glaringly obvious to the watching world. Want some proof? Take a couple minutes to watch this clip of the famous Agnostic Comedian, Bill Maher, talk about Christian’s refusal to obey the teaching of Jesus. (Contains explicit language)
That video may be hard to stomach but Bill Maher is 100% correct. “If you ignore every single thing Jesus commanded you to do, you’re not a Christian.”
The point of this post is to encourage those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus to reexamine how we are living our lives and practicing our faith. It is so easy to get so caught up in the flow that we fail to recognize just how far away from shore we have been carried. The words of Jesus are pretty darn clear, but oftentimes in our zealousness for our faith, we often get pulled away from the basics and eventually end up living in a way that we believe is honoring to God, but is actually contradictory to everything he has taught us.
In this post, I have offered just four examples. There and hundreds of teachings contained in the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, teachings that, if we obeyed, would absolutely flip our lives and world upside-down for the glory of God and the good of all people. What the Church as a whole and Evangelicals in particular desperately need in this age is a return to the plain teachings of Jesus. We need to be willing to set aside out theological debates and meanderings for a season and focus on simply reading, conforming, and obeying the will of Christ, both as revealed in Scripture and as we are led by his Spirit. The world is desperately longing to encounter Jesus through us and for far too long we have been giving them a cheap knock off that we have exported under his name. But it’s clear to everyone that what is passing for Christianity today is almost totally divorced from the teachings of Jesus Christ.
My prayer is that we would all turn our faces towards our risen Savior and seek to selflessly follow his commands. I am convinced that the Jesus’ way is the only way that will heal our broken world. I am convinced that the whole earth is groaning as it waits for men and women to take of their crosses and follow in the way of redemption. I am convinced that when those of us who call ourselves “Christian” re-orient ourselves in Jesus, the power of God will flow through us in an unprecedented and miraculous way that will bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Oh how I long for that day.
“Those who aren’t following Jesus aren’t his followers. It’s that simple. Followers follow, and those who don’t follow aren’t followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it.”
― Scot McKnight
I don’t accept divorce and remarriage for any reason outside of adultery or murder or something. Lots of “protestants” do not accept it.
I don’t disagree with you in the least. I’m just saying that in sacrificing to those who hate us, we don’t give up the Gospel, which has two parts: We are sinners, and there is a God who saves sinners.
Uhhhh ... what church DOES he go to ?"
did he teach those practices to his followers though
I tend to fall into the Sin of Despair because I know I’m lousy at most all of that.
Although the bit about Jesus not condemning — he did condemn, but not much in the eternal sense. There is always hope a soul can repent and convert.
“We need to be willing to set aside out theological debates and meanderings for a season and focus on simply reading, conforming, and obeying the will of Christ, both as revealed in Scripture and as we are led by his Spirit.”
Well, that makes things perfectly clear, set aside our debates but be led by His Spirit. Looking around today I see that some say the Spirit says that sodomite marriage is dandy. Others today say that abortion is a God-given right and perfectly acceptable.
So who is to say what the Spirit wants or what Jesus’s “dream” was?
Jesus is much more than our Rabbi.
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Romans 3:10-28
But I guess we are not supposed to read the Bible, but listen to this guy.
I’m just saying that in sacrificing to those who hate us, we don’t give up the Gospel, which has two parts: We are sinners, and there is a God who saves sinners.
The “cleansing of the temple” was a protest against certain abuses, not against the temple cult itself.)
Disagreements are not wars. They exist to help us think clearly.
The witness of those who know Him, the witness of the Holy Spirit.
The lesson there is that the scriptures testify to Jesus, and the context was that the Jew were relying on the Law to save them, but the Law points to Jesus. Yes, there is no salvation in the Bible, but the Bible is the only place where salvation is clearly taught. This is a false dichotomy, at best.
Given that the testimony of the Law and Prophets that points to Jesus is the same testimony as the Christian, it certainly is a false dichotomy.
2. As pointed out before, John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
3. Jesus condemned the Pharisees on several occasions, calling the sons of satan, a brood of vipers, etc.
One of the reasons they were condemned was because they were preventing people from drawing near to God:
Matthew 23:13 — Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to
Luke 11:46 — Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
4. The ultimate love for our neighbors is not to let them live in their sin, but to point them to Jesus. We have to confront sin.
Confronting sin is not necessarily condemning the sinner; in fact, there's little better way to raise a sinner's defensiveness than "dropping the hammer on them", how much more open to you would they be if, instead, you went two miles
for them? — if the goal of being a Christian is to be Christ-like then perhaps we should adopt his tactics. Often he didn't have to condemn the sinner because the sinner was well aware of their state and/or their accusers already had — Jesus was willing to address their deeper needs, to meet them where they were
, and he was not hard-hearted towards those suffering. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3[w/ Explanation].)
Speak for yourself, mister.
And he knows that how?
Has he interviewed Evangelical Christians or is he just presuming?
Yes. The whole essay is a suspect.
It’s like a house that seems nice and solid, but is actually off center and slanted and the corners don’t quite meet.
“Has he interviewed Evangelical Christians or is he just presuming? “
Presuming I would presume
There’s that whole casting pearls before swine thing as well.
Romans 4:5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
By the works of the Law is no flesh justified.
Seems this guy wants to put us back under the bondage of works.
What's the matter, you can't bring yourself to quote the verse??? It's except for fornication, not 'very narrow circumstances'...
Looking at 21 translations that ALL have some form of fornication in the verse, including your own Catholic Douay bible, I see that the only one missing the word or phrase is your perverted NAB...
So you are wrong, divorce and remarriage is allowed by Jesus due to an unfaithful spouse...
Admonitions such as those in John 5 to Jesus' disciples should not confuse us as if to imagine Jesus is--contemporaneously with us--pointing out our lack of faith. While that would apply to many, it doesn't apply to faithful Christians. For those, we that believe trust and believe the One He sent, and do have His words living in us. The Holy Spirit does help us call them to mind.
Deity is in the Word and the Word is God. Whatever is in complete accord with the Word is reliable, where things contrary to His Word or that fall outside thereof, as in another revelation, are either unnecessary to being Christian, or possibly something that might appear as an angel of light, but might not be. That is, these bodies we inhabit can be deceived.
Faith rooted in scripture is sustainable! Many have died in the faith, enjoying their assurance entirely on the Bible's Words as they heard the Holy Spirit speaking to them therein when read or brought to mind in remembrance.
We don't have the incarnate Jesus with us. Don't be deceived. Our communing with Deity is through the Holy Spirit and in the Name of Jesus, not in pretending we have the incarnate Jesus with us. He lives, certainly, but at God's right hand, not here with us.
The Bible is not a substitute for the living Word of God, but the Holy Spirit works with our souls in His Word, communing with us. In that, we are allowed to walk in the Light. There, we as priests are allowed to be present in the Holy of Holies, spiritually analogous to the earthly temples in this physical realm. There we render our spiritual service.
Accurate 'relationship' with God is to be a child of God, at best to be called 'friends', but please try not to imagine that we are on a par with God as some might try to "cultivate" it, and certainly not as Mormons imagine, that we become gods ourselves. N.B. The word 'relationship' is not a word found in the Bible, so why the chic harkening to "go there" anyway?
We are not assured that God might speak through our friends and family. Many have friends and family that are very far from God's Word. That's would only be as reliable as the Holy Spirit would call the biblical Word to one's mind, so why not leave it at the latter?
HF
The word is to abide in us and we in the word.
We NEED to be in Scripture and since the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double edged sword, I don’t think it’s even possible to be in the word any significant amount and NOT have a active life with Christ.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.