Half Jesus
In much of the world today there seems to be a new gospel being believed. It’s more humanism that it is Christian. This new Gospel has been around for centuries, but once again it’s gaining influence and acceptance. This new Gospel is more about doing what you want than it’s about obeying Jesus. It’s more about God AGREEING with me than me SUBMITTING to Him. At the core it’s a false Gospel that believes God’s greatest priority and desire is our personal happiness. If something makes me happy then God must want me to do that. The term for this is called Hedonism. Hedonism says, “pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.” This is the opposite of what the bible teaches. The highest good and proper aim of our human life is to obey God and surrender our thoughts, will and desires to Him. The call to follow Jesus comes with a call to deny ourselves (see Luke 9:23). Now I’m not saying God wants us miserable… but I am saying God knows what’s best for us and His will is better for us than ours. Obeying God is actually what’s best for us! It leads us to a life we’ve always wanted and dreamed of.
At the foundation of this new Gospel is actually a new Jesus. It’s not the Jesus of the Bible. It’s a Jesus our culture has made up. This new Jesus is a Jesus that only agrees with me and what I want. If we’re being real… a god that only agrees with you is no God at all.
“A god that only agrees with you is no God at all.”
Tim Keller said it best, “If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself.”
I know this may sound abrasive and pretty direct, but this blog comes from a place of deep concern. I’m worried that culture has crept into our Christianity and we’ve bought into a false Gospel and a fake Jesus. If this is true, then as a pastor and leader I must warn people and I must speak truth, in love.
There’s two passages of scripture I think summarize the point I’m trying to make. The first is John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The false Jesus being portrayed is just a half Jesus. The Jesus being pushed is a Jesus that is only full of grace. This Jesus is only “nice and loving”. Never direct, never says you’re wrong, and definitely doesn’t have an opinion on your actions… well unless you’re mean to someone then this full of grace half Jesus flips out. The real Jesus is absolutely concerned with how we treat people, but He is equally concerned with how we treat God. To disobey God, ignore His commands and to do whatever we feel is right is to offend and reject a holy and righteous God. I fear that we’re more concerned with offending a person than we are of offending God. If there is someone we should do everything we can not to offend, it’s the God who laid down His life for us and paid for our sins.
The next passage I think points out the full Jesus is the story of the woman caught in adultery. You can read the story in John 8:1-11. Let me summarize it… a woman was caught in the very act of adultery and some religious people found her (let’s not talk about why or how some religious guys knew the woman was committing adultery, cause that just gets weird). So they brought her to Jesus and they wanted to stone her to death. Jesus saw the hypocrisy of the crowd and told them to go ahead and stone her as long as they were sin-free. Obviously these guys had all sinned so they dropped their heads in shame and left. Jesus then comforts the woman. If the story had stopped there, I think a case could be made that Jesus is only full of grace… but it doesn’t. Jesus looks at the woman with love and compassion and says, “...go, and from now on sin no more!” Wait?! Jesus told someone what they were doing was wrong? You bet! He actually did this kind of stuff pretty often. His corrections ranged from calling people snakes & hypocrites, to sons of the devil and once called his disciple Peter, Satan. Jesus very plainly told people the truth when they were off track and had missed it.
You see, there is such thing as right. There is such thing as wrong. And if you call yourself a Christian, it’s Jesus who gets to decide what that is. Not you. Not me. Not culture and not the guy or gal on TV.
“This is what it means to follow Jesus. He is our Lord. He is in charge. Our lives are spent following Him and His lead.”
So… what should we do?
#1 Be careful who you listen to and follow.
Just because someone has a couple good things to say doesn’t mean we should listen to them or follow them. If a pastor, author, etc is teaching this half Jesus… I’d just avoid them altogether. Scripture would warn us that a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. This means that just a little bit of false teaching can lead you further away than you ever would imagine.
#2 Read the bible for yourself.
Going to church and listening to Bible teaching are huge to a growing faith. But above listening to me or any other person, you should read the bible. The bible is what leads us. Correct us. Teaches us. It alone has the words of life. Make a plan start reading the bible daily and let God speak to you through it.
#3 Prayerfully consider if the Jesus you’re following ever disagrees with you.
I can’t tell you how many times I am corrected by Jesus. It seems to happen so often I wonder why He still give me grace. But that’s who He is! He is full of Grace & Truth! Sometimes when I’m corrected by God it’s a wrong belief or it’s about something I did or said. It’s His loves that leads us to the truth and repentance. Don’t shy away from His correction. Embrace it. Learn from it and receive His grace to overcome your sin and weaknesses.