Smoky Mountain Reflections #156
How
does your view of Christ affect your application of who He is and what he came
to do for you and your life? A simple biblical answer would be that Christ came
into human flesh, suffered, died, rose from the dead to redeem all people and
will come again to gather His resurrected saints to Himself in His new heavens
and earth for all eternity. While this is true and should be preached and
taught at every opportunity, how does one apply it to daily life?
Daily
drowning the old Adam by remembering our baptism and thanking God for this gift
is a very good place to start, but then we have to get through the rest of the
day. Keeping Jesus first in all that we say and do is easier said than done. Doing
everything to the glory of God is and will be a constant struggle with that
drowned old Adam. I would like to propose that as we struggle, staggering from
ditch to ditch, struggling just to get up with God’s help, only to fall again, we
still press on. We are not fatalists, but we are realistic and we acknowledge
that as sinners we will often disappoint and hurt each other. We should however
still strive every day, with God’s help, to disappoint and hurt a little
less…..maybe even love God and our neighbor in the way He would have us do
it.
I
think that the ways in which we tend to apply Jesus and His gifts can be
characterized in several ways. This month, let’s look at five of them with the
help of metaphors. The first four can be seen as misapplications, while the
final one may be a helpful way to understand and apply Jesus’ love to our
lives. As I play a little with these metaphors, I would like to thank my classmate
Pastor Bryan Wolfmeuller of Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora Colorado who used most
of these on his Table Talk Radio program
and planted the seeds for this article. The metaphors I’ll use for commonly
held views of Jesus are those of a dating service, a bank, a school,
a drug store, and a courtroom.
So let’s play with these metaphors
a little, shall we?
Dating service: Many see their relationship with Jesus as being similar
to one between a boyfriend and girlfriend. The songs these people like to sing
have a sort of longing to see Him and touch Him and feel His presence in some
way. Their prayers express the same sort of things. When they talk about Jesus
they do not talk about what He did for them on the cross or what He does for
them in Word and Sacrament, but instead about how He makes them feel. Consequently,
these individuals see their church as a place where they can get connected with
their boyfriend and snuggle a little bit. Do not misunderstand me; I am not
saying that as the bride of Christ we should not seek to be nurtured and
comforted by Christ who is our bridegroom, using the means he has instituted, I
am simply saying that focusing on the
good feeling misses the point of the love and forgivness which provides that
feeling.
Bank: Some
see their relationship with Jesus as being similar to one between a banker and
an account holder. These people like to talk about how they and their church
have stored up in the “bank of good works” all that is needed. These sinners
feel comfort that in God’s eyes they are each “good persons”. When all of the
good and bad are measured on the scale, they say, the good will outweigh the
bad or at least they hope it will, and the pearly gates will be opened wide.
The Roman Catholic Church will still
today sell you an indulgence to make a withdrawal from this “bank”! But if
we look at the Bible, in James 2:10, we find that to break even one of God’s
laws is to break them all. So in
essence, we are all bankrupt in God’s sight. The scale of righteousness does
not measure good and bad on a curve; it only has two possible readings: 100%
guilty and condemned, or, through Christ,
100% redeemed.
School: At
this “campus”, well-meaning Christians claim to be able to prove that God exists.
While every area of scientific endeavor provides good information to shed light
on God and His presence, it all boils down to this: without the Holy Spirt
making the clear connection between God and His creation, the sinner sees only
what he wants to see. While any well-educated Christian can make a rock-solid,
rhetorically sound argument for God and His existence in any field of study,
only the Holy Spirit can crack the stone of a hardened heart so that faith can
take root and grow.
Drug Store: This view often takes root when a church stops talking
about sin, the cross, and forgiveness, and turns Jesus into what is essentially
a vitamin, putting all of their focus
on how being a Christian will make one wiser, happier, healthier, and
wealthier. Besides ignoring Christ’s primary purpose for coming into human
flesh and dwelling among us, namely, our salvation, it cheapens
His example of how we should live and turns it into a recipe for success
instead of a principal by which to live. But the worst thing about this
approach is that it sets people up for failure; when being a Christian does not
produce what the false prophets promise, they do not give up on the false
prophet…they give up on God.
Courtroom: While all metaphors have their weaknesses, this one can still do a very
good job of properly showing how Christ’s gift of salvation applies to our
lives. We are all guilty and sitting in the defendant’s seat, as the
prosecuting attorney (Satan) correctly proclaims our guilt. However, our
defense attorney (the Holy Spirit), calls Christ to the stand and asks Him to
speak in our defense. Christ says to the Father on the throne of righteousness
(the Judge in this courtroom scene): “Justice has been served in this case;
what the accuser says is true on all accounts, but he left out one detail: I
have already suffered and died for those crimes. Therefore, that defendant is
mine; a redeemed child of the triune God.” Amen.
Have a blessed February full of
candy hearts and friendly smiles!
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
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