Why Jesus?

So many people wonder, Why Jesus? Why should He be the only way? Good question. I too, used to wonder the same thing. Like many, I used to think that those "crazy Christians" were just being snooty and exclusionary; sort of like some holier-than-thou country club that only the "right" kind of people could get into--only if they thought you were "like them". Now unfortunately, it is sad, but true that there are some people out there who call themselves Christians, who do have this attitude. They seem to think they're better than everyone else, they tend to look down upon others who are different from them, and of course, they go to the "right" church. A church, I might point out, that not only most of us wouldn't be welcome in, but Jesus wouldn't be either. It's amazing how many apostate churches there are out there; congregations who want to "play church" like little children want to "play house"; and like the little children, they want to make up their own rules as they go along, and do everything according to their own desires....whatever is fun....whatever makes them feel good. It should also be pointed out that many of these so-called Christians have a strict set of rules they think must be followed....mostly by you, not them. Or if they do follow them, it's because doing so makes them feel more righteous--like "Look at me! See how I live? See what I do/don't do? I don't eat pork or shellfish! I wear a head covering in church (for women)! I don't drink coffee! I don't touch alcohol--that evil stuff!" etc. etc. Kind of like the old saying "I don't drink, smoke or chew; and I don't go with girls who do!" People with such stringent rules and lives were called Pharisees in the time of Christ, and were some of the ones that Jesus used to get awfully irritated with. They added all kinds of new traditions and rules to what God had already taught them, making it virtually impossible for anyone to do much of anything "right". Jesus had many strong words for them, such as: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Mat. 23:13
You may be wondering, o.k., so then these kind of people are not really Christians, then? Or are they? Probably some of each. Meaning, just because someone who calls himself a Christian happens to be annoying, doesn't mean they're not saved. On the other hand, the Bible tells us that there will be those who are downright phonies; who talk the talk but that's all they do--they don't really love Jesus. They don't really believe that He is God in the person of the Son (like we discussed in my last post); come to earth to be born of a virgin (now if God can create a universe, why couldn't He make that happen?); live a sinless life only to be accused being some kind of heretic and nailed to cross; take every sin ever committed upon Himself and die, having paid the penalty for us; and rise from the dead on the third day. Many of these folks seem to just think He was "a good teacher; a good man". Those who are of this particular mindset are not Christians, no matter what they try to tell you.

Now, I don't mean to discourage you by admitting that yes indeed, there are those who call themselves Christians but are not--I'm merely being honest. I just don't want for those kind of people to throw you off, and make you think that everyone who says they're a Christian is cut from the same mold--they're not. True Christians believe all the things I listed above, and believes the Word of God. They are disciples (meaning followers and imitators) of Jesus Christ. And , if they're really living the kind of lives He wants them too, they'll act like decent people most of the time! I say most of the time because, becoming a Christian does not suddenly make one perfect. Oftentimes, it doesn't even suddenly make one better--though on the other hand it often does, as God will do an immediate work on the person then and there, as He did with the Apostle Paul, who at that time was called Saul, on the road to Damascus (see the book of Acts 7:8-8:13, and then Acts 9:1-22 for the story of one miraculous turn-around!) More often, God will work more slowly....changing the person on the inside, bit by bit, in ways that might not be too obvious at first. He always starts with what He knows is the most important thing to change, then move on to the next, and keep molding and shaping that individual in an individual way throughout his or her life, until He brings them home. At that point, the work is finished and they're absolutely perfect. But none of us--even the most wonderful Christian in the world (whoever he or she is!), will ever be perfect this side of heaven! We live in a fallen world, and even Christians, along with everyone else, still have what the Bible calls that "old sin nature"....meaning that, much as our spirit wants to do what right, and never do anything wrong, we still struggle with that old "fleshly desire" that every one of us has inherited since The Fall in the Garden of Eden. It's a daily battle for each of us, and Satan knows it--and boy, does he ever know how to exploit our weaknesses! So it could be said that the major difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that the Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit within to keep us from doing wrong-- sinning--and with His help and guidance they (again, if they're doing God's will) live a much better life than they did before they asked Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour. Even with the Holy Spirit living within us we still sometimes go against what He's telling us (what non-Christians would call a conscience) and mess up, because of that "sin nature" I mentioned; but when we do we feel bad about whatever it was, confess what we've done to God (yes, of course He knows--but like the good parent He is, He wants us to recognize and admit it) and repent--a Greek word that means to turn around and go the other way. And He forgives us. He picks us up, dusts us off, and puts us right back on that "narrow way" that Jesus spoke about. So the whole thing can be summed up by what Jesus said:

	"In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
	"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
	"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
	"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
	"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn {bushes} nor figs from thistles, are they?
	"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
	"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
	"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
	"So then, you will know them by their fruits. Mat. 7:12-20 Alright, but why Jesus? As I mentioned earlier, even many of those professing Christians have some funny ideas about Who He Is....many of them even claim that He's not the only way to heaven. How wrong they are. How wrong I was--I was one of them. And, you may be asking, what about the "country club" mentality? After all, before I gave my life to Christ, I thought that Christians were purposely trying to exclude others by claiming "their" way was the only way--a sort of religious bigotry. Again--how wrong I was. This is proven over and over again by a multitude of Bible verses--too many to mention them all here, but I will point out a few. First off, it wasn't Christians who, one fine day, decided they wanted to create one way and one way only to get to heaven--or at least make people believe that there was. No, this came from God Himself. In my last post, I explained the how and the why of Jesus coming here and literally offering Himself up as a scapegoat, paying the price for our sins. So it would stand to reason then, that the only way to heaven is through Him. However, this isn't only for a certain group of people, and the rest be damned. He came and He died for everyone who was living then, everyone who had lived before, and everyone who was yet to be born. "Everyone" means everyone. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, how rich or poor, where you live or where you're from; it doesn't matter what background you came from, or even what you've done--no matter how horrible--you are included. Christianity is the most inclusive movement--I won't call it a religion because it's a relationship with the Living God, not a religion--there ever was or will be. See for yourself: * "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 (emphasis mine). * The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (emphasis mine) * And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mat. 28:18-20 --This was after the Resurrection (emphasis mine) These are but three of many such verses that emphasize that Jesus died for everyone--past, present, and future. He came and took our place. The Bible says "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." Romans 3:23; and "...there is none righteous, not even one" Romans 3:10. He paid the price for us, so that we could be forgiven and have eternal life...and become God's children. But, you may be thinking, we're all children of God! After all, He created us, so that makes us His children! It is true that we are all His creation, and as such, He loves each one of us more than anyone on this earth ever could. But being His creation is not the same as being His child. To be His children we must first go through Jesus; as this is the only way we can be forgiven and saved, as I mentioned in my first post. Again, this isn't something that a bunch of uppity Christians invented--it comes from God Himself: * "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." 1 John 5:11-12 * Jesus said to him "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6 (emphasis mine) * So they were saying to Him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also" John 8:19 (Jesus here is speaking to those Pharisees I mentioned earlier. As usual, they were trying to trap Him.) * Then Jesus again spoke to them saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12 God made the universe, so it stands to reason that He gets to make the rules, too. After all, He's God and we're not! From the beginning one of the laws of the universe was, the penalty for sin is death. In the Garden God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree, save one: ...but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Gen 2:17 And they did. They were created to live forever, in close fellowship with God, but the day they rebelled against God, they died. First they died spiritually--and this happened immediately. Later on they--and everyone since then--died physically as well. Now if God were going to make exceptions for people, and allow them into heaven when they died (thus giving them eternal life with Him) based on good deeds and good behavior, He'd be breaking His own rules. As a righteous, just, and perfect God, He can't very well do that. This is where Jesus in His grace and mercy comes in.....paying the price for us. God provided one way and one way only to "beat the rap". His way around the problem without breaking His own rules was Jesus. His only way. One solution, not many. I'll let Jesus explain in His own words, as He explained to Nicodemus, one of the good Pharisees who secretly admired Him: Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God {as} a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." John 3:1-21

There's something about God. He is many things to many people--to some, a kindly old grandfatherly-type figure, who perhaps winks at those "little" sins and says "Ah well, kids will be kids", or something to that effect. To others, a capricious taskmaster, a micro-manager, who puts His heavenly nose into everything, cracking the whip and striking with lightning whenever the whim takes Him. Others seem to believe He is something of a genie; a cosmic Santa Clause, if you will, who will give them what they want if they jump through all the right hoops, and say all the right prayers. To yet others He is non-existent; and believe it or not, some even say that God is the evil one, and poor Satan is the good guy. Then there are those to whom, like me, He is not only the Maker and Master of the universe, but a Father--omnipresent (all-present), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipotent (all-powerful), yes--but a Father, just the same.

One thing is for certain: He's God, and we're not.

But a father, as well? How can this be? How could an all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing Being, a force so awesome and powerful that it could create everything from the tiniest atom to the greatest galaxy, and everything in between, be a father figure, of all things?

In a word--Jesus. Ah, now there's the rub, eh? Just the very Name of Jesus sends many people into fits--unless perhaps, you happen to be saying something politically correct and comforting, such as "Jesus said, 'Judge not, lest you be judged' ". Most people love that stuff, but otherwise, many tend to get huffy when you talk about Him. Why? And what does He have to do with all this God-as-Father stuff, anyway? There is no way this can all be explained in one post, but I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest version. Just remember, the best explanation is probably sitting on a shelf somewhere in your house, gathering dust; or if not, is still readily available in libraries and bookstores. It's called the Bible. But, like the former me, most people would rather just read a blog, or an email, so here goes.

First, one of many answers I could give as to why Jesus is so offensive: "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause' ." (John 15:18-25). Jesus was the only person in history to have never done anything wrong, and yet He was wronged more than anyone in history when they nailed Him to a cross. He did nothing but good when He was here on earth, so they had no good reason to hate Him. Yet they did, and not only the people of two millenia ago, but down through history to the present. You see, Jesus didn't only raise the dead, make the blind see, and heal the sick--He offended. He was, and is, offensive to people because He convicts them of their sin, and doesn't let them off the hook with a wink--and this is not exactly a fun situation for us to be in.

And what of the God-the-Father stuff? Well, here's where we get into the Trinity. Don't panic--it's not that tough! St. Patrick used the shamrock in Ireland to explain the Trinity; a very handy model, I think. A shamrock has three leaves, right? But just because it has three leaves doesn't make it three shamrocks, does it? Of course not. So what if we plucked off one leaf? Would it still be a shamrock? Of course it would. Or take an egg. The egg has a shell, a yolk, and a white. If you break the shell and put the rest in a pan and cook it, wouldn't you say you've cooked an egg? Just because the egg has these three distinct parts, doesn't mean it isn't one egg. The Trinity is much the same, in that it is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--or, God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit--three separate entities in One. Not that God the Father one day decided He wanted to create a baby God, and this is the Son. Jesus always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We call Him the Son because, literally, God left His awesome place and came to earth, born to a virgin in the form of a helpless baby. This was God the Son--not half God, half man, but both fully God and fully man.

The next obvious question would be "Why would God do this? If you were some amazingly powerful deity, would you want to give that up and come to earth; to be born in a filthy, smelly stable, raised by peasants in some backwater, and in about the most primitive, backward time in history?" The answer is, of course I wouldn't. And neither would you. We simply don't have that capacity for selfless love. But He did, and He does. That's right--love. Mankind was created to have a sinless, perfect relationship with his Creator, but he blew it. Big time. Since then, God has been calling us back, loving us so much He would do anything to reconcile us to Him. But we couldn't do this by simply "being good". From the beginning, "....the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." ( Romans 6:23). People couldn't earn their way to heaven then, nor can we now. From the beginning there has always been a penalty for sin, and God being not only a just God, but a Holy and Perfect God, is hardly about to break His own rules. What kind of God would He be then? "Okay, well, if you'll promise to just do the best you can, I'll let you, with all your contagious dirt and stains, into My absolutely perfect-beyond-your-ability-to-imagine Heaven." It would be like the director of a hospital, upon learning of a miraculous new way to totally cleanse the O.R. to where there isn't even one germ; and do the same to every surgeon and nurse entering by simply walking through a sort of "de-contamination archway", letting them in to operate as long as they "wash really well". Now, God being God, He could have simply zapped fallen mankind in such a way as to make them love Him, make them perfect again--but then that would be taking away free will, and who wants that? So, this was like one of those nasty jobs that you've decided must be done, and the only way is to do it yourself. Enter God in human form....a.k.a. Jesus. He lived among us, as one of us. He experienced hardship, He grew up poor, He had a mom and dad, brothers and sisters, just like us. He was tempted in all things, just like us. Unlike us, He lived a perfect, sinless life. Who else but God could do such a thing? Who else but God could have performed the miracles He did, and have the strength, the will, the love, the amazing grace, to not defend Himself in an illegal, kangaroo court, suffer having the flesh literally ripped off of him down to the bone, be nailed to a cross, ask the Father to forgive them--even the very ones who drove the spikes into Him--hang there all day in the desert heat, and finally take on all our sins, past, present, and future, paying the penalty for all of us, and die? Only to rise again in three days? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

You may be saying, "Now, wait a minute. First, you quote that the wages of sin is death. Now you quote that if we believe in Jesus, we won't die. But people still die. What are you talking about?" I'm talking about eternal life. Actually, God made us with eternal souls--we will exist eternally somewhere. The question is, where? Well, Jesus, by taking the rap for us, paved the way for us to spend eternity in heaven. We are not righteous and holy on our own, nor can we be, but He is righteous and holy, and when we sincerely believe that He is God in the Person of the Son, who came to earth to take the rap for us, died and rose again in order to save us from ourselves--that this is the free gift He offers each and every one of us, and we accept that gift and ask Him to forgive us and be our Lord and Savior--then, and only then, will God come to live in us, to be a part of us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. And from that point on we become clothed with the righteousness of Christ. From that point on, when God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ. From that point on, because of Him, not because of anything "good" we might do, we are considered by God to be clean enough to enter that "O.R." I spoke about. On the other hand, if we choose to go on our merry way without Him.....well, our way won't be so merry if we're spending it apart from Him for eternity. Imagine that. Eternity. Where there is no past, present, or future. There is no such thing as time. It just....is. Forever. I, for one, much prefer to spend eternity in the unimaginably awesome presence of God--and seeing loved ones who have gone before will be a nice little bonus, as well. But you know, that isn't even the main reason I've made the choice I have, as compelling a reason as that is! See, if I had it to do over again, I'd make the same choice, even if God personally told me that there is no such thing as eternal life--that, living here on earth with Him in my life is all fine and dandy, but once I'm dead, I'm totally and irrevocably dead. Why? Because I've lived both with and without Jesus in my life, and have found that life with Him is so much different--different as in better, but more--I can't really explain it--than life without Him.

But more on that later.