Who is Jesus?
I believe that Jesus is the One who saves. But…aaah…what is salvation? Salvation comes when we stand in right relationship with God. It’s a healing of the rift that exists between we selfish, solipcistic creatures and our Creator.
All of the terms and images that are used throughout the Gospels and Epistles point to Jesus of Nazareth as the One who fully manifested the self-emptying servanthood that is required if we are to conform our wills to God. He’s the physical reality of the logos that underlies the universe, so woven up into who God is that parsing out where the man ends and God begins is a fools errand.
Or the errand of theologians. Six of one, half dozen of the other.
More importantly, through him we come to see that this logos isn’t just the disengaged Enlightenment clockmaker or the abstraction of an Aristotelian unmoved mover. Instead, Jesus expresses the logos to us as love. He has soteriological power..that means savin’ power, kids…because he is God’s own self-expression. He’s not the Ba’al of a neo-Canaanite Trinity, sacrificed and raised by El like a subordinate mediator god in a tripartite pantheon. At his most essential, substantial level, Jesus is God.
Being Christian..and being saved…is less about obeying or emulating Christ and more about participating in Christ. It’s not about our own heartfelt emo conviction that we’ve been adequately spattered with His plasma and corpuscles. It’s not measured by our ability to memorize and recite scripture or the doctrinal assertions of our particular tradition.
It’s measured by our participation in that love that is God the Father, which Christ expressed through his life, and which the Spirit struggles every day to manifest in us.
reposted with minor tweaks from Beloved Spear
About David Williams
YES! i think you nailed it on the head. Pete Rollins says that, ‘I do not believe Christians are called to believe in the resurrection of Christ. I believe we are called to be the resurrection of Christ. To be the site where resurrection takes place.’ That statement is amazing and has such deep implications for our faith. Take time to mull on those 33 words and allow them to really sink down into your being, your soul! This is deep stuff! Thanks for your thought-provoking post!
Warmest Regards,
EP
@EP- that quote articulated how I feel much more precisely than what I was trying to say in my entry about who is my Jesus. Thanks for sharing.
@Spear-I’m not sure what you mean by “Being Christian..and being saved…is less about obeying or emulating Christ and more about participating in Christ.” How do you participate in Christ without obeying or (trying) to emulate him? Just wondering. What does participating in Christ mean to you? I enjoyed reading your post but I must admit it probably went over my head.
@Dannah: By “participating in Christ” I’m describing the essential and transforming role that the Holy Spirit plays in our relationship with Christ. We’re not “obeying” in the way that we obey a law, under fear of coercion. We’re not “emulating” in the way that we might mimic the actions of someone we respect, hoping for societal approval. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are acting as a people transformed by the nature and reality of God.
We’re till our own bad selves, but…different. I know it’s a bit fuddly, but then again, it’s supposed to be.
I’d tend to look to places like John 15:1-17 or John 16:5-15 for more detail. Or Galatians 5:13-26.
I disagree with the sentiment on obeying. I find that those people or things I love, I truly obey, from the heart expressing in action. If I love money, my heart is going to do what that love tells me. If I love an abusive person, unfortunately I am going to do what they tell me. But if I truly love God, I will obey Him from my heart which will show in my actions. I think sometimes we see obedience as doing something we don’t want to do. That is actually what the Bible calls sacrifice. Obedience is aligning my will with another’s. It is something that 1st takes place in our hearts and then transforms actions. Obedience to God is the call of a Christian—to align our wills to God’s.
@ marie: I’m all ready to disagree with you too and get into one of those blog ranting exchanges. But I can’t. Bummer.
It appears that you and I have a very similar understanding of obedience in a Christian context. Christian obedience is not the same as worldly obedience. Laws rely on coercion, and people obey them out of fear of punishment. It’s all about power dynamics, and not about love. The love of wealth is the same thing, as wealth is just a social proxy for power. If we obey the call of mammon, we’re engaged in the same sort of power struggle.
But we obey God for very different reasons, not from fear and not from desire for power, but because we find ourselves transformed by the depth of love and grace we encounter in Christ.
I guess I believe not seeing eye to eye is not something that has to be offensive or hostile or feared. IF it is we might as well rip the book of Corinthians(Paul wrote that letter in disagreement to how the believers there were living because they were exalting their wisdom above God’s and saying sin was ok cause of grace)out of our Bibles. Paul made much more aggressive statements than I think I am capable of, but they came out of Paul because he loved them. If you felt personally attacked by me saying I disagree I am sorry. Personal attack was not my intent. But I cannot apologize for in love disagreeing with your words “Being Christian..and being saved…is less about obeying or emulating Christ…” Jesus did not say that. He said “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”Jn14:15
@ Marie: Personal attack? Gosh no. I didn’t think that at all. I was just being a bit silly, which is why I put in the smileyface. What I noted was that we’re actually not in disagreement.
Your citation of John 14 is absolutely on point. But…what is his commandment? We have to look around a bit in Christ’s long farewell discourse as recorded John, but it’s there. The commandment we are called to obey is this: “Love each other as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:12) That obedience comes from the presence and indwelling of the Spirit, and of having Christ not as a boss us ordering us around, but within us. (John 14:20)
“Obeying” out of love for God and one another and “obeying” out of fear of punishment are very different types of obedience. One is the obedience of a slave, and the other is the obedience of a child who delights in their parent. That, I think, is also the point Paul is making in Romans 8:15-17 about the nature of our relationship with God. We are not slaves who are forced to obey, but beloved children.