Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #829 (10-4-22), “What Do I Know?” When we understand that when we know Jesus we know God … we know a lot.  See the column below.  Oh ... and thanks to long-time friend Stan N. who was first to point out my typo last week regarding our mutual friend and mentor George Bebawi … George died February 2021, not 2001 as I had it in the mass email.  I might add … a lot of what I know is thanks to George.  Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

-- -- --

Spirituality Column #829

October 4, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

What Do I Know?

By Bob Walters

“But whom do you yourselves say that I am?” – Jesus to the Disciples, Matthew 16:15

 Modern Christians spend an awful lot of time wondering if they are behaving like Christians. Or, judging if others are behaving like Christians.

Christianity worries about sin.  And salvation.  And “my rewards.”  And, “Am I going to heaven?”  Christians thank Jesus first and foremost for forgiveness, and for His perfect sacrifice on the cross.  “Wow!  You did all that for me? Thank you, Jesus!”

Such is the state of today’s broadband church.  The therapy of knowing one is saved, forgiven, going to heaven, and meeting Jesus is the great sales pitch and palliative of faith and social life with Christ.  The brass ring of the too-often misdirected contemporary church is that “I was bought at a price and now Jesus is my Home Boy.”

Well, Jesus is certainly my friend, and yours whether you accept Him into your life or not.  We are indeed all sinners and Jesus on the cross defeated our death by covering our eternal sins with His perfect blood.  Jesus did it for love, in obedience.

But let me insert here that I bristle a bit at the whole “paid the price” thing because as churchly ubiquitous as that idea is, the Bible doesn’t say it.  And while yes, the body and blood indeed metaphorically look like a “cost,” to whom is the “price” paid? 

To God?  Jesus is God.  No, He doesn’t pay Himself. And Peter doesn’t rob Paul.

Which brings us to today’s point.  Jesus rarely asks about a person’s behavior; He asks what they believe.  When we make “faith” about our behavior and rewards, we miss the actual prize: the comfort, peace, grace, and strength of life in Christ.  Jesus emphasizes obedience to his commands, which are to love God and love others

What we know through Jesus Christ isn’t simply “how to behave.”  What/Who we know through Jesus Christ … is God.  And we know that God is love.  Jesus’s sacrifice wasn’t a “payment,” a “price,” or a “trade”: it was God’s own gift of obedience and love.

Look at the Gospels.  Rather than relentlessly instruct human behaviors, Jesus relentlessly asks, inquires, teaches, shows, and presses the point onto humanity about His own identity.  He does it with words, miracles, knowledge, and authority … by faith.

Without “proof” or business cards or an “I Am God” name tag, Jesus’s mission on earth among humanity was to reveal God as a loving Father who sent His son to repair and restore our relationship as the Creation in God’s own image.  In our aggregate pride and sin, we lost that relationship in the fall of Adam and Eve.  Jesus came to tell us God was willing to give it back … if we trust, believe, and obey His son Jesus … in faith.

And Peter got it right, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt. 16:16)

The New Testament is the Holy Spirit’s gift to us – as is the Old Testament as well – to instruct us who Jesus is and how to live in this life with the love of Jesus Christ.

Remember of Jesus: “Who He Is” is the point, not “What we do;” works don’t save us.  We accept the grace and peace of Christ with our love and trust of God, and become beneficiaries of a life in Christ; Jesus already knows what it’s like to know God.

Jesus didn’t bring a new religion, he brought revelation of reality and the gift of us being able to know God.  Our eternal, image-of-God life and relationship are restored.

If that helps one’s behavior – and it should – so much the better.  That I know.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) wouldn’t trade life in Jesus for anything; it’s priceless.