Spirituality Column #812

June 7, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Person to Person

By Bob Walters

“Had Jesus only been entirely God he could not have died for us.  It is the very fact that Jesus was fully human and fully God that makes Jesus our savior.” – Titus 2:13-14

Let’s talk about the “personhood” of Jesus and discus whether it is His person or His cross that saves us.  Good question, huh?  I bet you didn’t see that one coming.

It is by default that most of Christianity looks at the Cross, looks at Jesus, and says, “the Cross saved me.”  Yet just like the Bible never specifically uses the phrase “the person of Christ,” it also never says the Cross saves us.  The Bible says Jesus saves us.

Jesus bestows personal salvation often in the Gospels before His death on the Cross.  He tells the sinful woman who anoints his feet (Luke 7:50), “Your faith has saved you.”  In His healing miracles, it was a person’s faith in Jesus that healed them.  To the woman who touched the “fringe of his garment,” Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.” (Matthew 9:21-22). To the centurion whose servant was near death, Jesus says, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.”  Examples abound.

On the Cross, to the Good Thief next to Him, Jesus cites the thief’s belief and assures, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is our recognition of Jesus as the Son of God that saves us.  How do I know?  Because in John 14-16, at the end, it is recognizing His identity as the Son of God that Jesus hammers home to the disciples; not their behavior, and not specifically His death on the Cross.  They must know Who He is.

If one does not believe Jesus was fully God and fully man, a discussion of His saving personhood is superfluous. But the point I’m making is that it was the coming of Christ among mankind that was God’s move to save us.  Our sin brought death; our belief in Jesus, acceptance of forgiveness, and repentance brings eternal life. 

The Cross is a powerful symbol that proved Jesus’s love and obedience, and the Cross is the perfect picture of the perfect sacrifice we all must make in a world that not only disbelieves but hates Jesus.  In His empty tomb and resurrection, we see the proof of what Jesus had been claiming all along; the proof that He was indeed God.

But what exactly saves us?  What gives us God’s life?  I believe Christianity looks – and is lived out – very differently depending on how we answer that question.

The Cross of Christ is a horrible symbol of pain and suffering; we may feel that pain personally, especially every Good Friday, when we consider the enormity of what Jesus went through to prove His love for us and His obedience to God.  To His suffering and pain, we tend to respond with guilt, focus on sin, fear punishment, and remain tied to our sins, perpetually apologizing for that for which Jesus died and God has forgiven.

It is a clever, earthly powerplay if you can make people feel guilty instead of free.

And free is what I feel in the love of Jesus Christ.  Not free to sin, but free to love Jesus for His grace and compassion, and for His image of perfect sacrifice that I must live up to in the spirit of love for God and for mankind.  It is the person of Jesus I love.

One can view God – through Jesus on the Cross – as the “punisher of sin.”  But punishment is not ever how the Bible presents the Cross: atonement, obedience, love, and healing, yes, but not punishment or payment.  We say that; but God doesn’t.

By our faith we are saved: faith in the God and powerful person of Jesus Christ.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes joy comes from the love, not fear, of God.

Friends:  It’s my birthday week, the last week of school, Indianapolis 500 weekend coming up with family in town, Memorial Day, summer beckons … why not say something outrageous about the Cross of Christ? See the column below. Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #914

May 21, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Cross Off 70

By Bob Walters

“The days of our years are three-score years and ten ...” – Psalm 90:10

There you have it.  Psalm 90 says we will live 70 years. If I wake up Thursday morning, May 23, I will have proven the Bible correct, celebrating the big Seven-O.

Psalm 90 goes on to say that strength may give us 80 years, but the whole of Psalm 90 is not about the glories of old age but the pitifulness of our overall lives.  God’s been watching us, the psalmist – believed to be Moses – says, and God is not impressed. Our days are “toil and trouble,” Moses prays, “… and they are soon gone.”

Shortly thereafter, he entreats of God, “…teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom” (90:14). God delivered that “heart of wisdom” fifteen hundred years later in the living, human and divine person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is our “heart of wisdom.”  Living a long life will not give us wisdom; not the kind of wisdom for which the psalmist pleads: the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of man.  It is one of a gazillion Old Testament phrases that speaks directly to man’s only source of relationship with the wisdom of God, and of God Himself: Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament, throughout, sets us up to know and appreciate Christ.

The New Testament reveals the new life and covenant in the wisdom of Christ.

James 1:5 says that if any of us lacks wisdom, to ask God for it, “…who gives generously to all without reproach.”  God gave us Jesus Christ so we would pursue wisdom – in Christ – that transcends this life and bridges into eternity. And we traverse that evil-to-good bridge by the grace of the person of Christ, who actually is the bridge.

And speaking of that bridge, as I wander ever closer to the next bridge from this life to eternity, for my birthday I thought I’d say something true, but maybe outrageous.

Here goes.  Not long ago I was watching a Bible expositor draw that familiar sketch of the Cross spanning a chasm between the world and heaven, death and life, dark and light, evil and good. Condemnation, fear, guilt, sin, lies, and hell on the left; salvation, love, grace, forgiveness, truth, and the Kingdom of God on the right. 

Let me first say: “A wise man’s heart inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.” says Ecclesiastes 10:2.  But that theological drawing of the left-to-right bridge over the chasm to transcendent God?  That bridge is not the cross of Christ; that bridge is the person of Christ. Our relationship with God – salvation – depends on Christ alone.

Somehow, dependably, most of humanity loves the dark and hates the light, says Jesus (John 3:19).  We go left when the Bible says go right. Our hearts and deeds are evil, Jesus is saying.  And we prefer they remain unknown, in the dark, on the cross.

But … we are not saved by the cross. We are not saved by the Bible.  We are not saved by church. We are not saved by baptism.  We are saved by the person of Jesus Christ: His love, His grace, His obedience, and the blood of His covenant with God.

The other stuff is important: the tools of our knowing. The cross is an example.  The Bible is our guidebook.  The church is His body. Baptism is the gift of signing on to the promises of Jesus – heart, mind, body, and soul.  But salvation.  O! … salvation.

Salvation is a relationship with a real person, Jesus, and comes from no earthly relic, event, idea, or deed. The supremacy and sufficiency of Christ is unchallenged

In the Holy Spirit, we know that our salvation resides in Christ alone. Outrageous!

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows his birthdate – “5-23-1954” – better now than at any previous time of his life because of how often healthcare providers ask for it.  Psalm 90, by the way, is considered the oldest Psalm as the Jews wandered Sinai.  P.S. – I have written much about the Cross since beginning this weekly column / blog in November 2006. Here are 12 on the Cross, in order, my blog search button says are the best. Click on the number to see the column. #812 and #640 are my favorites (on PCs it's "control-click" on the link).

650 4-30-19 – Life Beyond the Cross (Preparing for eternity)

651 5-7-19 – Living at the Cross (The Cross is closer than we think)

652 5-14-19 – At the Foot of the Cross (Jesus lives; how do we live?

812 6-5-22 – Person to Person *** (The saving personhood of Jesus)

640 2-19-19 – Cross Purposes *** (Purpose of the Cross)

692 2-17-20 – Close Call (Church)

862 5-23-23 – Just Like That (Lessons of the Cross, and last year’s birthday)

750 3-29-21 – Father, Forgive Them (Jesus on the Cross)

663 7-30-19 – For My Sake (Understanding the Cross)

287 5-15-12 – Sin and God’s Saving’s Plan (My sins on the Cross)

527 12-20-16 – The Cross, Christmas, and Freedom (Strength of the Cross)

393 5-25-14 – Defining Moments (Importance of the Cross, and my 60^th birthday)