The Old Adam Lives!

In case you haven’t noticed lately, there seems to be quite the assortment of Jesuses offered up to us in the culture, in churches, and in our own minds.

There is Jesus the great teacher.  Jesus teaches us all about life, ourselves, and God. He fills in all the blanks so that there will be absolutely nothing keeping us from knowing all that we have to know in order to fulfill our humanity.

There is Jesus the great example. Jesus shows us (by example) exactly how we should act (WWJD),  so we will always be in the will of God, pleasing Him, and serving others.

There is Jesus our master. Holding all power over us, commanding us to do tasks, to live a certain way, to give up our possesions, to withhold nothing, to serve and obey Him at all times and in all things.

There is Jesus the great comforter. Jesus soothes our aching souls, and calms us in times of trial. Jesus encourages us to hang in there and not to give up. He lets us know that He will always be with us, through thick and thin.

There is Jesus the judge. Jesus will sort everything out. He will make sure that there is real justice and punish the evil doers. The liars, the cheats, the fornicators, the drunkards, the murderers…they will all get their just deserts. On that last Day Jesus will kick some you know what.

All of these Jesuses are real. He was and is all of these things. We may want, or not want Jesus in some or all of these aspects of His being. 

But there is one aspect of Jesus that for us should rise far above all the others and that should eclipse all the others in import, not only in our churches and in our hearts and minds, but also in the culture, insomuch as we have any say in the matter, and that is that Jesus came to save us from eternal death. 

He didn’t come to be a teacher. He didn’t come to be an example. He didn’t come to bring the law to bear on us. He didn’t come to be our therapist. He came to be our Savior. He came to die…for us. That we might live someday with Him, in eternal glory. That’s why He came. To save us from sin, death and the devil. This version of Jesus, the Savior Jesus, is, in the end, the only one we must have. 

‘ We preach Christ crucified” – St. Paul

              – Steve M.

Filed under: Theology of the Cross |