Jesus Christ: What Do You Think Of Him?
December 07, 2008

What do you believe about Jesus Christ? Who is He?
Is He a good man?
Is He a moral leader?
Is He really God?
The medieval teaching of Christ was of an angry judge that could never be pleased. He was the Savior, but now you will have to work like the devil to earn your salvation, and make Him happy. This teaching doesn't make any sense at all. But many were held in bondage to it for centuries, and still are today. Unfortunately, everyone still sins. But go up against this teaching and you were doomed. Many were killed, burned at the stake. Many are still tormented by their inability to stop sinning. The teaching that you must earn your salvation is as damnable now as it was then.
But this torturous teaching led to a Reformation of the Faith. A more Biblical Christianity was recovered and taught. Many rejoiced and believed in a Biblical Christ. The One who actually saves and forgives real sinners.
Many today try to portray Jesus as a philosopher. Bill O'Reilly is very busy with this Jesus. O'Reilly is not a very good theologian, but he has a TV show, so people seem to think he is an expert on whatever he speaks about. But the last thing Christ came to do was to give us more good ideas and morals to live by. And He certainly didn't care whether anyone said "Merry Christmas" or not. That is totally unimportant. The Incarnation was radical. The Son of God, entered time, added a human nature to Himself, to save us from our sins. And we make a big deal over the words, "Merry Christmas"? Somebody is not understanding what Christ came to accomplish. The law of God thunders at us from the day of Creation until today. "Do this!!! Do that!!! Don't do this!!! Don't do that!!! OR YOU WILL DIE ETERNALLY!!! This is not the makings of a philosophy of positive thinking. This is bad.
Joel Olsteen can be as positive as he wants, but motivational preaching is not Christianity. The TV preachers seem to know how to make God obey them and they will share their God given secrets with you for the right price. According to them, God apparently can be bought. Rick Warren, from what he says, is much more thrilled with his works for Jesus, than Christ's works for him. But it is God that is the giver, not us. Apparently today's Christians want God to sit up and take notice of them. This is horrid sin.
Here is our predicament: Sin entered the human race immediately after Adam and Eve were created. God gave them everything. Everything but one tree. That He told them "The day you eat from it you will die!" Was He mean, or loving? He wanted to preserve them in His life, but it is often taught as something more ominous. Well, we all know how it turned out. Eve, being deceived by Satan, took what God did not give her, Adam said nothing to stop it, both ate, and took us all down with them in their sin. All were in Adam, and sin has been passed on to all of us. We are all born guilty before God and in need of forgiveness.
That's just the first three chapters of the Bible. The whole rest of the Scripture is about how Christ comes, by Himself, to fix this problem. Christ comes to seek and save the lost, that would be us. He comes to fulfill the promise of Genesis three; that He would be the One to crush the head of Satan, thus rescuing us from the wrath of God.
But before He comes, God codified the Law. He puts in writing "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart!" Oh, great!!! Now we're screwed. Now we are really freakin' screwed!
Unfortunately, many of the Jews at that time answered, "All this we will do." Yeah, right. That worked out real well. Of course, they never did. They couldn't. Neither can we.
The purpose of the Law was not to correct bad behavior. It was given to show us how very sinful we are before God. It was given to cause us to confess our sins and ask for mercy. God gave the sacrifices to His people as a gift, a substitute, to show them they are forgiven. Something else would die in their place. He gave them the sacrifices as a promise, that the Real Sacrifice, the Real Substitute, the Real Lamb of God, would come one day to fulfill the promise of Genesis three. The believing Jews saw these sacrifices as the gifts from God that they were, others saw them as a chore and a payment to God to earn salvation.
Many Christians are still trying to earn their salvation, or at least their place and status in Heaven. Most of American Evangelicalism believes this. This is a sad distortion of Scripture. No one has ever kept the Law of God. No one can. And yet so many think God is thrilled over 'tithing' or some other pitiful 'good work', as if it wipes out all of their sin, balancing the books. This is closer to Eastern Religion than to Christianity. (Most Christians I know actually believe in Karma, an Eastern teaching.) But nothing that we do can make God happy. By imposing these beliefs on God, we make Him in our image. But we forget, God calls us to perfection! If we break one small part of His Law we break it all.
So how are you doing? You've never committed any sin? Really?
We have no power to make God happy. Fortunately God knows our predicament all too well. He knows what we need. So He, Himself comes. Emmanuel! God with us.
Starting in the Incarnation, God Himself comes to save us from our sins. God Himself comes to accomplish ALL that is necessary for our salvation. He does not just start the job and then sit back to see what we do with it. NO!!! He keeps the Law perfectly, and give us His perfect life as a 'substitute' for ours. He gives us His death on the cross, adding His eternal value to it, as a 'substitute' for us, to remove us from the wrath of God, brought on by our sin. And with Him being drenched in the wrath of God in our place, our Father in Heaven accepts this sacrifice for our sins and raises Him from the dead. He has ascended on high back to His Father, where He is reigning today, and will return one day for the judgement, and wind this age up.
Too many Christians have missed that Christ is our substitute for life and death. As we grow in faith, we should recognize and believe what Christ says is true. He says, He is good, we are not. We are sinners. All that is necessary we have received as a gift. We can not cause God to do anything. We can't cause sanctification anymore than justification.
Instead most Christians today present themselves as improved human beings, the good ones, as opposed to the rest of society. This is pharisaism and everybody sees it as the sheer hypocrisy that it is. We see each others sins very well, no matter how pretty we dress them up. We are all frauds. St. Paul, towards the end of his life said he was a wretched man. Do Christians today confess this Biblical condition as their own?
This month we celebrate the entrance of God into human flesh. He comes to rescue the helpless, the ungodly, the powerless. Christ came and died for sinners, not good people.
This is Good News! Really Good News!
We can drop the masks of our mythical goodness and confess the truth, that we are poor miserable sinners. Wretches! We would suffer, and would deserve, eternal death, but our Creator has had mercy on us, and paid the price to save us.
This is the meaning of Christmas.

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