Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #824 (8-30-22), “Heart of the Matter.”  When we confine the heart of Jesus to “forgiving my sin,” we miss the heart of truly knowing God.  Be assured; Jesus provides both. See the column below, or at our blog CommonChristianity, or on social media.

Have a great week, and God bless … Bob

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Labels: Creator, forgiveness, John 13, knowing God, relationship, religion, sin, trinity

Spirituality Column #824

August 30, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Heart of the Matter

By Bob Walters

Is Christianity, at its Jesus heart, first and foremost about knowing God?

Or is it about God forgiving our sin and me being saved?

God’s gifts are many and magnificent, and perhaps it is impolite to rank God’s multiple purposes and lessons that Jesus presented to humanity.  We already know that God, in toto, is a whole and complete package / being / life / entity Who cannot be divided by my human caprices and preferences.  Just because I want God to be something I can define or stratify has no bearing on what God actually is.

But it’s fair to wonder: Who is God and What does He want … most?

God is the main event.  He is the first and only cause, and the uncreated Creator.  He is love in the eternal trinity relationship that includes Christ and Spirit. God is not the schoolhouse principal; He is not “daddy with a switch.”  He is Father-Son-Spirit-love.

He is God who put into our hearts and minds the questions, “Where did I come from?” and “Why am I here?”  Turns out “God” is the answer to both.  1) God created us in His image as a sentient, free expression of His love and His eternal life (see Genesis 1-2; or the entire Bible, really), and 2) our purpose is to know and share God’s glory.

I don’t think God’s main goal with Creating us was so He could forgive us later.

I think first and foremost God wanted us to know Who He is; He already knows us.  Then I think He wants us to love Him and love each other, the sum of Jesus’s two great commandments (John 13).  God is relationship, and relationship is what He invites us to join … with Him.  Sinners needed help with that, and that’s what Jesus did/does.

On its own, humanity seems to be a Creation unable to leave well enough alone. Exhibit A would be The Garden of Eden.  But that wasn’t a Godly flaw.  It was and is a feature of the free and creative creature God created.  As we ask questions and sort out answers, having a mechanism for mental sequence is helpful.  Hence, my inexact list.

Somewhere down near the bottom of what I’ve learned about Christ, I’d pencil in, “forgiveness of sin,” and below that, “start a new religion.”  Without forgiveness of our sin, our relationship with God cannot happen because of His perfect righteousness. None of us is perfect, but we tend to over-prioritize “fixing myself” and “what I get.”

Jesus came to give us life with God in the body of Christ, which we call the church.  And that Godly human life begins with humans knowing who God is.  Jesus came to show us God is real, and that God’s love, truth, goodness, and righteousness are divinely trustworthy.  God means business, and He means for us to know it.

With the help of Satan, humans figured out early on how to stray from God, to sin (see Genesis 3), and break the relationship God intended. Ever since, humans have shown neither reluctance nor inability to create religions, gods, philosophies, systems, myths, stories, and governments to explain or imagine control over their environment, or of forcing control over other humans.  Jesus did not come to control us with a religion or browbeat us about sin; He came to free us with surety of God’s love and eternal life.

The forgiveness thing had to happen … like putting tires on a car.  But the point of the car is the freedom and purpose of the journey and destination, not the tires.

Jesus proves to me that God is true and good.  Salvation is the wind in my hair.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is forgiven (like you), but his joy is knowing Jesus.