On occasion I listen to a daily radio program here in deep East Texas called "Bible Answers". If you're imagining a radio host that has the "right" answer to every possible Bible-based debate or scenario - you would be correct. What amazes me is how this commentator/preacher will go days, even weeks, without mentioning the name Jesus. He'll discuss/preach on divorce and remarriage; correct doctrine; speaking in tongues, or a host of other issues, but he rarely speaks about Jesus.
Here are some profound words Oswald Chambers wrote on this issue well over 100 years ago:
The New Testament example of the Christian experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration— no being born again into the kingdom in which Christ lives and reigns supreme. There is only the idea that He is our pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the Savior long before He is the pattern. Today He is being portrayed as the figurehead of a religion— a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more. He is salvation itself; He is the gospel of God!
I just don't get how one can believe that living the "right" Christian life involves replicating how someone worshiped in New Testament times. If we'll do exactly what the New Testament church did (in our minds) 2,000 years ago - nothing more and nothing less - then we'll be fine. I don't get that form of thinking, it is foreign to me.
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2 comments:
I picked up a copy of Wharton's Church of Christ and thumbed through it again recently. I am most struck by the way he thinks we can "re-establish" or "duplicate" the church based on the pattern.
I have concerns with that language at sooooo many levels. To begin with, who are we to establish anything? What is God's part in it? And since I think we have functionally worshipped a thing of our own making, then it is idolatry. When you consider everything in between, that makes a lot of levels.
I feel ya. Good thoughts.
I think Jesus is the way. Be him. Follow him. Love each other in the doing.
In Acts, a mighty rushing wind filled the room. That is the Spirit of God. In Genesis, God filled the lungs of the newly formed man with his breath, that is his Spirit. Two pictures of the same thing: God, creating his image bearer. He establishes. We don't.
We follow. Jesus, as you say.
Just a touch of my thoughts on it all.
Many blessings...
Kent,
Great post. I have just awakened to this great truth too - that Jesus is the focus. It has taken me 50 years to wade through all the junk in my head from years of indoctrination to see this. Now, instead of the epistles being my favorite books, the gospels are. Now, instead of being frightened about "acceptable worship" before a frowning God, I experience the freedom and joy of a relationship with the tenderest, sweetest person who ever lived. Now my heart has burst open and I love all mankind. In the past I looked at everyone who wasn't a member of my church as someone contaminated.
Cindy
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