Study – Grow – Know

“I Like Jesus – But Cannot Stomach You”

October 21, 2010 at 12:06 PM Leave a comment

The above is an interesting comment to say the least.  This was recently stated to me in an emailed response to one of my posts here.  The individual making the statement – Doug – was trying to show to me that Jesus was LIKE-ABLE, but I am the opposite.

The sad part of Doug’s statement is that he has absolutely NO clue who Jesus is, much less whether or not he (Doug) would actually LIKE Jesus.  Too many people see Jesus as a type of Maharishi, who went around Jerusalem with this dopey grin on His face, and glazed over eyes as He tried to help people love themselves.  They see Jesus as LOVE, and nothing else.

If you ask people what “love” is, you will get a plethora of different responses.  However, most would agree that love is something that makes a person feel good about themselves and others.  It is a motivating feeling that prompts people to do good things and to wish and hope for the best where others are concerned.  This is as idiotic as you can get!

What parent spends their time making sure their children love themselves?  What parent – who truly loves their kid(s) – spends NO time disciplining them, but simply lets them run amok, doing whatever they want to do so that the child’s life might find fulfillment?  My parents disciplined me when I needed it.  My father rarely needed to spank me and in fact, I only remember one occasion where he did so and it was because I was stupid enough to throw a rock at someone!

The point is that most people have at least two different definitions of love working in their life.  They apply one type of love to friends and family, but when it comes to God and/or Jesus Christ, a completely different love is seen.  The love that is attached to God/Jesus Christ is ethereal in nature.  It is seen as a love that is so highly “evolved” that few humans (if any) can touch it.  In truth, this type of love is other-worldly and does not necessarily exist in this world of human beings.

If we take only the life of Jesus, we will see far more than Someone who spent His entire 30 years (plus) of life walking around with a grin that was always present, and a desire to help people see their true worth.  People who do not know the Jesus of the Bible have created such an ethereal picture of Him that though they believe they have created an honest picture of Jesus, they have actually created a mental image of Jesus that in no way resembles the Jesus of the Bible.

When I went to graduate school studying the Bible, there was a guy there who spoke in this affected tone of voice.  It was always on an even keel.  He never really raised his voice, or lowered it.  It was the weirdest thing I had ever witnessed at the time.  I mentioned it to my roommate who knew the guy longer than I had.  His response was “Do you think it’s real?”  It was a rhetorical question because he immediately followed that up with “Because it’s not.”

Most of us know when we are around another person who is fake in some way.  We know when they are putting on a display of some kind.  We tend to know when people are being phony.  It never feels good because it is almost as if they are saying “You are such an idiot that you simply do not have enough intelligence to know that I could care less about listening to you right now, though I am pretending to do so.”

This unfortunately happens in California a lot.  In fact, it tends to happen in large metropolitan areas simply because people are usually so preoccupied.  Many do not mean to appear insincere, or uncaring, but they are distracted because of all the things they have going on in their life.  Even so, we can tell when someone is not all that interested in listening to us, or chatting with us.

People who tend to project feigned interest really only kid themselves.  Most people are intelligent enough to figure it out rather quickly that the person is not interested and is simply looking for an opportunity to get away.

In truth, the image that many have created of Jesus is so “perfect,” it’s wrong.  They see Him as Someone who never raises His voice, never gets on anyone’s case, and never has an angry word to say to anyone.  Certainly they believe, He would never say anything to them that might be remotely construed as negative or from anger.  These people have NOT read the Bible.  They have not read the four gospels and they have certainly not read the rest of the New Testament, which is based on the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus spent a good deal of time chastising the religious leaders of Israel.  He called them things like “white-washed sepulchers” (cf. Matthew 23:27), an “unbelieving and perverse generation” (cf. Matthew 17:17), referred to religious leaders and the average person as “foolish” (cf. Matthew 5:22), and more.  He was often annoyed with His own disciples that He hand-picked.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus is not the epitome of picturesque pleasantry.  He was sometimes difficult to be around simply because He was so often misunderstood.  He had a very commanding presence and it angered people severely at times.  There were times when His statements made religious leaders AND the average person want to kill Him! (cf. Luke 4:21-30).  During this particular situation found in Luke 4, the situation begins in the synagogue.  Let’s read the text:

“21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” ²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” ²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”

Jesus had just finished reading a small section from the book of Isaiah that indicated that He was the Person Isaiah was talking about, and the people did not like hearing that at all.  How DARE Jesus intimate or claim that He was more than they thought He was – it was SIN!  It was BLASPHEMY!  Away with the perpetrator!  They tried to throw Him off a cliff, but He escaped their grasp.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus is a Person that not only commands attention, but a Person that everyone else must make a decision regarding.  Who is Jesus?  He presents Himself as God the Son on numerous occasions, doing and claiming things that only God could do and claim.  Jesus is the dividing line.  You cannot simply say that “Jesus is cool,” or that “He’s just all right with you” as the Doobie Brothers did in the 1970s.  Jesus is either who He claimed to be – God in the flesh – or He is not.

When people say to me that they “like” Jesus, or that they think when they see Him, they would go up to Him, pat Him on the back and say “What up, J-man?!” they are showing their ignorance and their pride.  If they think for one moment that they will do this to THE living God of the universe, it merely shows how LITTLE they actually know Jesus.

When Doug made the comment that He likes Jesus, but doesn’t think he can stomach me, he simply showed his ignorance and pride.  Frankly, I could care less what Doug or any other human being thinks about me!  That’s not even an issue.  The issue is what Doug and everyone else thinks about Jesus!  Does Doug really believe that he “likes” Jesus without even knowing Him?  Does Doug actually believe that even though – by his own admission in another part of the email he sent – he has virtually no relationship with Jesus because he has never received Christ’s salvation as outlined in John 3, and in spite of this, Doug believes he “likes” Jesus?  How absurd is that?

The person who has never read the Bible for him or herself and comes to the conclusion that they like Jesus is kidding themselves.  If they liked Jesus, they would LOVE Jesus, and if they loved Jesus, they would obey Jesus.  No one lives a perfect Christian life (and beware of those who say they haven’t sinned in so many years!), but our efforts once we enter into a spiritual union with Jesus should be directed toward submitting our will for His.  Because I continue to have a sin nature, I will make mistakes.  My concern then should be on how far apart those mistakes become the longer I am a Christian.  My goal should be on pleasing Jesus Christ, not anyone on earth.  By that I mean, He is the one who will judge me and my life.  Humans can cast their ballots and give me their feedback.  They may be wrong or right.  God is never wrong and through His Spirit living within me, I am guided in the direction He wants me to go.  When I sin according to His law (not man’s), the Holy Spirit brings my sin to my attention and I have the opportunity to repent of it, which means to confess it and ask His help in turning from it completely.

People too often see Jesus as a “good teacher,” a “good man,” or something similar, but rarely as the God He is and because of that, these same people have no real reverential fear of God.  He is a “friend” and a friend only.  They compare Jesus with someone already close to them who accepts them as they are and doesn’t care if they change or not.

The real Jesus accepts us as we are and THEN causes us to change from within once we have received Him into our lives.  The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is the key to my growth as a Christian.  Without His indwelling presence, I do not grow from within.  I may SEEM to grow because I may force myself to change outwardly, but the change remains outward.

People in this world do not accept the fact that at times, Christians become angry and there are righteous reasons to become angry.  The world sees Christians as wimps who turn the other cheek, who are always on the verge of tears, who cannot give enough, and essentially enjoy being doormats while the world walks all over us.  This is not who Jesus was and it is clear from Scripture.  There were times He grew angry at the religious leaders.  There were other times He became angered at the average business person who had turned His Father’s house into a den of thieves (cf. John 2:16).  The problem here was seen for what it was – greed – and Jesus reacted to the situation in godly righteous anger.  He took the time to make a whip from a cord, then overturned the money-changer’s tables, chasing them out of the Temple area.  They were indignant and upset, but what could they do?  Jesus was right!

This is the Jesus that everyone thinks of as always calm, soft-spoken, pliable, giving, and more.  Now, while He was often calm, soft-spoken and gave more than any of us will ever be able to give, He had no difficulty standing up for what is right, nor did He have a problem with calling sin, sin.

Funny how radical Muslims can blow up innocent people, and the world shakes its collective head in dismay.  While they may not think highly of these extremists who kill in the name of religion, they are never called hypocrites.

The Christian, on the other hand, merely has to raise his voice once, or refer to someone as an idiot, and according to these same people, becomes a hypocrite, a hate-monger and worse.  Here is the reality – the people who are so sure that they know what being a Christian means, need to go back and study the gospels until they understand that Jesus was multi-faceted.  He was not some namby-pamby Maharishi from the Far East, who arrives on the scene to bring peace at all costs.  There is no such thing as John Lennon’s version of peace and love.  It does not exist.  As long as fallen human beings live on this planet, peace is always out of reach.  It takes a radical change within each person for peace to even have a chance on earth.  Even then, true peace will not exist until Jesus Himself comes to this planet in judgment.

Once Jesus judges, He will then set up His Kingdom.  We are told from Scriptures that He will rule with a rod of iron (cf. Psalm 2:9; Revelation 2:27; 19:15; emphasis added).  If Jesus is going to rule with a rod of iron, maybe, just maybe He is going to have to make some hard decisions and take care of things in a way that does not seem “peaceful” or “loving” to at least some in the world during His reign.

Obviously, ruling with a rod of iron does not mean that all things are hunky-dory.  Jesus challenged the religious leaders of His day with words that stung!  He took the average businessman to task, overturning their tables and robbing them of their day’s ill-gotten gain.

Jesus is someone to fear and the disciples feared Him on many occasions. This idea that Jesus is “likable” is ludicrous, but that is the way of the world.  They know no better because they are unwilling to hear the truth about Him.  Those of you who firmly believe that Jesus is a swell guy, someone you’d like to throw back a few brew-skies with is not only wrong, but sacrilegious.  He is GOD of the UNIVERSE!  He deserves our obedience and our obeisance.  He is to be worshiped, not Someone to carouse with!

The world needs to get it right.  People need to understand that sin is sin and it is NOT tolerated by God – my sin or yours.  There is only one path to freedom and salvation and no other.

Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

People need to CONFESS to the fact that sin reigns in their bodies and minds.  Only trusting in Jesus provides salvation now and will one day fully eliminate even the propensity to sin!

The world needs to get their eyes off human beings, and on the real Jesus.  He is the one that every life will be compared to and it is His life that will decide our eternal abode.  If you have received His salvation, you have received His righteousness.  If you have not received His salvation, you have your own filthy righteousness on the witness stand.  I’d rather have His, wouldn’t you?

We will be going more in depth with this topic in the next blog or two.  Please stay tuned.

Entry filed under: 9/11, alienology, Atheism and religion, Demonic, dispensationalism, Eastern Mysticism, emergent church, Islam, israel, Judaism, Life in America, new age movement, Posttribulational Rapture, Pretribulational Rapture, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, Satanism, Sharia Law, temple mount, ufology. Tags: jesus hates sin, jesus is not a maharishi, jesus is not a namby-pamby, salvaton in jesus.