Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Jesus and Those in Need”. As always, I find a provocative comment in each lesson. A comment that elicits further investigation and further study. And this lesson is no exception. The comment that arrested my attention is the first phrase in this week’s lesson. “Among other reasons for His incarnation, Jesus came to show us what God is like” (quarterly for Sabbath Afternoon, August 10). As I pondered this comment, I could think of no other reasons for Jesus to come. In every act, every word, He showed us the Father. “Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:50). And this is true, especially at the cross. This was the supreme revelation of God. In all that Jesus does and is and says, is telling us the “Good News” about His Father and our Father. Jesus is our Savior because God is our Savior. Jesus came to give us God. So I’m a little flummoxed about what the quarterly means by this comment.
So much of what has gone before has colored us sinner’s perspective of God since the very beginning. Think of all the Pagan religions that were fabrications of us sinner’s ideas. We created this system of religion because it appealed to us sinners and because it seemed to fit with nature and what we saw around us. We saw the animals. We saw their mating. We saw the seasons come and go as a result of the sun. And so we created a system of worship that appealed to those concepts of fertility and of a “sun-god” who needed recognition or appeasement. We returned a portion of our own crops to the “sun-god” and we reveled in our own fertility. We also returned a portion of our own fertility to the “sun-god”, too. We sacrificed our children, products of that “god-given” fertility in order to assure our “god’s” favor or to appease his displeasure. Human sacrifice to appease an offended deity. Of course, these ancient religions are just a thing of the past. Or are they? Doesn’t the same selfishness course through the veins of us even today? Did it not course through the veins of every sinner since the “fall”? And I propose it has colored Christianity even to this day.
For example, for most of Christianity’s existence, we interpreted Jesus’ death as an appeasement of an offended deity. That God could not forgive us until He had a human sacrifice. And so the death of His Perfect Son, who took upon Himself humanity, was sufficient for all of us sinners. God could now forgive us human sinners. We even state that Jesus is our “Substitute” (quarterly for Thursday) implying that Jesus was our human sacrifice so that I would not need to be that human sacrifice. I hope this depiction of God our Father leaves you a little cold inside. Makes you a little nervous inside for the way it mimics the ancient “sun” religions. It should make you cold inside. It should lead you to delve into the real reason for Christ’s death. This substitution idea is a reason we sinners like because we are no longer held responsible (almost all of us have an aversion to responsibility. But our “ability to respond”… or response-ability… is ours alone and God holds us to it).
A “substitute” is something in place of the real thing, UNTIL THE REAL THING SHOWS UP. You and I are to follow our God to the cross and die with Him there. Die to self with Him. You and I are the “real thing” that needs to show-up on the cross. Our God went to the cross to show us the truth of self-sacrificing love that all heaven embraces… and we need to embrace, too. He is our “Surety” or our “Bond”. A bond is something of value placed-down to assure that the accused will show-up for trial. In our case, Jesus on the cross is showing us self-less love and by His presence there is showing us what we need to be, too. He is there, leading us to be there, too. He is the “Surety” that we will be there on the cross with Him. He is “sure” of it.
Why even bring this up? Because our picture of God (which must match our picture of Jesus) determines our attitude to “those in need”. If we have a God unlike Jesus, than we may inadvertently have a motive that more reflects the pagan culture that has altered our picture of God. The dark shadow of paganism extends across the centuries to our day. Our popular “gospel” is full of paganism. Is this pagan influence altering how we view others, too? Are we thinking the Son is doing something to change the Father from an unforgiving Deity into a forgiving Deity? But this cannot be for the Son and the Father are “one”. And they want us to be “one” with them… “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21). Especially “one” with them on the cross… “one” with Them and Their self-sacrificing love. It is high-time we Adventists present the true gospel, not a “me-too” reiteration of the so-called gospel peddled by so many Christian denominations. The true gospel (that Christ did not die in-place of you but so you could die with Him… and rise to newness of a love-filled life for others with Him, too) will not make us any friends in the Christian world. We will be demonized as heretics for bucking the conventional interpretation. But the world needs to know the truth. The so-called gospel of today is responsible for creating lukewarm, nominal Christians (in name only). The true gospel will lead to our old-man crucifixion so that we can finally live for love. Real love. Not crucifixion to appease an offended deity. But to our voluntary surrender to the will of God. Jesus laid down His life at the feet of the Father to persuade us to lay down our life at the feet of the Father. God sacrificed Himself for there was no other way of getting Himself into our hearts. Our hearts are full of self. A self-love that has perverted the motivation of our God to match our own self-centered motives. May we be faithful to our Father and our God. May we always interpret His actions in a way that no longer maligns His character of love, is my prayer for us all.
With brotherly love,
Jim