Monday, March 27, 2017
541 - Run to Jesus
Spirituality
Column No. 541
March 28, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
March 28, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Run to Jesus
By
Bob Walters
“I have given them the
glory you have given me” – John
17:22, Jesus praying for all believers in the Garden of Gethsemane before his
crucifixion.
In this suddenly, seemingly upside
down world of snowflakes and safe spaces, of microaggressions and trigger
warnings, and of big lies, vacant truth, backwards morality and intensely
unjust and mockable “social justice,” why is culture running from Jesus when humanity’s most secure
shelter, rest, peace and purpose is
Jesus?
Maybe it’s
because folks see Jesus – if they see Him at all – as the ultimate parole
officer, the prosecutor of our sins and the judge of our sinfulness. “Love
of Jesus”? Yeah, sure. “But be
sure to duck if you do wrong” is the received message. “Forgiveness
sounds nice but do you see what they did to Jesus on the cross? If He was perfect and was treated that way,
what are they going to do to me?”
Which is to
say, Christians frequently kill our own narrative. We preach the Bible’s forgiveness but our
witness often appears hypocritically unforgiving. Freedom in Christ takes on the appearance of
condemnation in Christ. Christians who truly
do understand Christ’s love and grace too often present Jesus in terms of
commandments, obedience, punishment, payment and price. Folks get plenty of that in their day jobs.
We all have friends and family who regard
a trip to church as a trip to the spiritual police station. Nobody wants to face the desk sergeant. Or, as Jesus is the great physician, going to
church is a trip to the spiritual hospital: “Yes I want to get well but I also want to get out of there as soon as
possible.” Jesus is only a visit,
not a lifestyle.
Instead of using the Bible and
church mostly as wrecking balls for sin, we as Christians have to improve our
ability to communicate the rock solid building blocks of Christian faith and
life. “Made in God’s image” (Genesis
1:27) is the foundational truth of humanity.
That we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) is the unavoidable truth. That Jesus restores us not just from sin but into the holy family of God (John 17:22, “I have given them the glory you have given me”) as children and co-heirs
(Romans 8:17) is a prize of unimaginable scope and a responsibility of eternal
consequence.
We chase holiness and people laugh
at the notion because we all know we are not holy. That’s because our holiness never comes from
us; it comes from Jesus. We are all
unique in our particular sins but we are, as believers, all the same in our
holiness because holiness is entirely God’s.
With our faith in Christ, God’s glory is our glory.
That makes it a big, big deal to
sit in fellowship and worship with other believers knowing that together we
share Christ’s glorious promise of life and eternity with God.
Now that is a safe space, and the only way there is to run to Jesus.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) isn’t holier than thou, he is merely a
different type of sinner than thou. Also, hat tip to Wednesday night E91 Bible
teacher Dr. George Bebawi for the John 17:22 reference.
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