The stories recorded in the inspired texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have stood the test of time, telling us about a Man who is also God, who lived, died, and rose again. He really walked the pathways of a dusty, out-of-the-way place called Palestine 2 millennia ago. His timeless story has inspired people from primitive cultures in the Amazonian jungles and in luxury Manhattan apartments. The simple and the intellectual are moved by His sacrificial love which is displayed in His willingness to die on the Cross. The young and the old are thrilled by the miracles that attest to His uniqueness.
It is not wrong to carefully study the ways in which the ancient Gospel applies to our lives and times. Seeing the old truth in fresh ways is not wrong. One of the most amazing things about Him is that He doesn't fall 'out of style.' His Gospel works in Bombay and Los Angeles and Zambia addressing the basic human needs shared by every culture. From time to time we need to re-examine our understanding of the Gospel texts. Why? Because, ideas not found in the text get attached to it that corrupt it.
So, make it fresh, but don't re-write the Bible. Find Him, but don't try to do a "Jesus make over" that robs Him of His majesty and message. Jesus is a controversial and shocking Individual. He makes claims that are stupendous! He provokes and prods, demanding our attention and devotion. We don't do Him or the Gospel a service by trying to round off the edges. He meant to challenge the status quo. He meant to call us to change, to tell us that there was a new Way back to God opening up through Him.
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says it best: "I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse .... You can shut him up for fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to."
Here's a word from the Word. Believer, it may be familiar to you and therefore you'll be tempted to let your eyes quickly run through it... but don't! Ponder it, meditate on it, believe it - and the testimony it makes about Him.
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:10-14, NKJV)
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Jesus! What a friend for sinners!
Jesus lover of my soul!
Friends may fail me, foes assail me;
He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Jesus! What a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted tried and sometimes failing,
He, my strength my victory wins.
Jesus! I do now receive Him;
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness;
I am His and He is mine.
Hallelujah what a Savior.
Hallelujah what a Friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.
Our Great Savior
Chapman, J. Wilbur / Prichard, Rowland H.- Copyright:
Public Domain
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