Paul's Passing Thoughts

“So, if we don’t use the Bible as instruction for applying deadly words to our life, but instead use it to discover what Jesus’ favorite color is, we are transformed into His image from “glory to glory.” The former is living by do’s and don’ts, so don’t do that, do the latter.”

You hear it every hour of the day if you are a Christian that partakes in Christianized venues of Twitter, Facebook, radio, and especially church. I don’t like to type, so let me run over to Twitter and get it via copy and paste, I will be right back.

Ok, I’m back, here is one of the versions:

Knowing God does not come through a program or a method. It is a relationship with a Person.

Sounds spiritual, doesn’t it? Yes, as Christians, we want to partake in more spiritual endeavors than things like, say, biblical instruction. Yes, biblical instructions by the Lord are a “method,” “a step by step program,” and other things that reek of cold, hard, tablets of stone. After all, we don’t want to live by don’ts. Christ is not a precept, He’s a person. He’s not a formula, He’s a Father. Well, you get the picture.

But what does it mean? Just grab your Bible, flip it open, and put your finger anywhere on the page and read; it’s probably going to be about God telling us to think a certain way, love in a certain way, act in a certain way, or illustrate what happens when people don’t. So where are all of the verses regarding this Jesus as person motif as if that’s not a no-brainer to begin with? Notice the strong either/or prism that suggests the following equation: seeing imperatives in the Bible = you’re so stupid that you don’t know Christ is a person. Right. Supposedly, here is what the Great Commission really states:

Go to all of the ends of the earth and make disciples, teaching them to observe my personhood.

So what does it mean to know that Jesus is a person? Let me give you the thumbnail version. This truism was propagated by New Calvinists and their Gnostic approach to sanctification. Matter is evil; spirit is good. Or as they state it specifically, “The letter kills (law written on things made up of molecules), but the spirit gives life.” So, if we don’t use the Bible as instruction for applying deadly words to our life, but instead use it to discover what Jesus’ favorite color is, we are transformed into His image from “glory to glory.” The former is living by do’s and don’ts, so don’t do that, do the latter.

The bottom line is the following: opting for a subjective personhood of Christ rather than focusing on what Jesus says is sanctified idol worship. Let me illustrate. Here in Ohio, just outside of Dayton,  there is a Charismatic church that built a  60 foot tall statue of Jesus along Interstate 75. Recently, it was struck by lightning at night and the flames could be seen for miles in a spectacular apocalyptic-like demise. According to interviews conducted by the local press in regard to that event, it was discovered that the image meant many different things to many different people.

That’s the subjectivism problem with idols, and without a doubt why God doesn’t want any made, whether of things in heaven or Earth. They are subjective and everybody comes up with their own truth. It’s the same with using the Bible to gain a supposed deeper and deeper knowledge of Jesus’ personhood  rather than reading to ascertain what He would have us think, say, and do. I have to wonder if this issue isn’t the crux of Jesus correcting the woman in Luke 11 who proclaimed His mother blessed because she had given birth to Him. Jesus made the sharp point that blessings don’t come from merely being closely related to Him, but by doing what He says.

paul