| Lipservice Jesus once told the pious leaders of his own religion, “God says, ‘these people honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me.’ ”[250] Legalistic, modern Christianity has pictured God as a Judge concerned about the legal standing of his subjects, rather than a Father concerned with healing his dying children. But Jesus never said, “Unless you’re forgiven, you can’t enter the kingdom of Heaven,” but rather, “Unless you’re born again—” completely changed into a new person— “you cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.”[251] Even being “born again” has been turned into the world’s joke about Christians. It is understood and taught to be merely a title or “status” automatically conferred by the repetition of a prayer. “A new creation” becomes a mere legal entry in a book in Heaven—no real change is absolutely necessary. They even speak of “carnal Christians”[252]—“saved” people who live carnal lives. Being “saved” becomes a legal matter; they can live however they want and still be “saved,” because they are “covered by the blood of Jesus.” The bumper sticker, “I’m not perfect—just forgiven!” must nauseate God.[253] Forgiveness is not all that is involved. To show the nature of sin and salvation, did Jesus come as a healer, or a lawyer? The question is, are you going to be healed and restored? The whole testimony of Jesus is to the fact that we can and need to be transformed into “a new man”[254]—a “new creation.” “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall not see the kingdom of Heaven.”[255] Why Should I? A typical reaction when this love is first presented to us is, “Why should I love others? No one treats me this way! When people start treating me this way, I will treat them this way.” But we cannot expect to reap what we haven’t sown. Even Jesus understood that he had to sow love before he could reap it.[256] God never told us to go and get the world to love us, because we have no control over their actions and feelings. He told us to go love others. And love will come to you if you sow it; the question is, do you trust God enough to wait for him to bring the harvest? Most people have never seen this love, and the concept is so opposed to the “survival mode” they have lived in most of their lives that it seems ridiculous at first. “The message about Christ’s death on the cross [the ultimate demonstration of self-sacrificing love] is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power.”[257] Satan has successfully convinced the majority of mankind that selfishness is superior to love. “if you sacrifice yourself, you will perish! Save yourself! Think about you! Me, me, me!” he chimes. But Jesus said, “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake [believing what he taught] will save it.”[258] “I am the resurrection, and the life; whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”[259] When Jesus died, his disciples thought it was all over. But neither the Roman guards placed at his tomb or a million demons could keep him in the grave! Angels told the women who went to Christ’s tomb Sunday morning, “He is not here; he has been raised, just as he said.”[260] Just as he said—“His command [love] brings eternal life.”[261] Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, and all other great men are still in their tombs. But Jesus Christ rose from the dead! And he has promised us, “I am telling you the truth: whoever hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He will not be judged, but has already passed from death to life. I am telling you the truth: the time is coming—the time has already come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life.”[262] The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus prove that peace, security, and happiness are accomplished only by self-sacrificing love, and that it is ultimately stronger than death. |
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| 250 Matthew 15:8-9 GNB 251 John 3:3 252 which is a real contradiction in terms, like a "square circle" 253 see Revelation 3:16 254 or woman 255 Matthew 5:20 256 I John 4:19 257 I Corinthians 1:18 GNB 258 Matthew 16:25 259 John 11:25, 26 GNB 260 Matthew 28:6 261 John 12:50 262 John 5:24-26 |
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