I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness [writes Paul] ... For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit [perhaps a different prophetic message] which you have not [already] received [from us], or a different gospel which you have not [already] accepted [from us], you bear [tolerate] this beautifully (2 Cor. 11:1-4 NASB).
Have you ever wondered if you have adopted a different Jesus than what is presented in the New Testament? Would you even recognize a different Jesus if someone proclaimed to you that Jesus is like this, or like that, or that Jesus expects such-and-such from you, and if you don't measure up to what the preacher / teacher / pastor / theologian is saying then you don't belong to Jesus, and you'll spend eternity in Hell? After all, the Mormon Jesus is not the Jesus of the New Testament, and neither is the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses the Jesus of the New Testament. Both of those false religions present a Jesus that is not the Jesus that Paul preached, that Peter and the other disciples preached, that the Gospels preach. Would you recognize a false gospel if you heard it? Paul writes to Christians: I am amazed that you are so quickly
DEMOCRAT JESUS
For example, there's the Democrat Jesus, a distorted Jesus as Social Justice warrior and Social Gospel preacher (Luke 6:20). Leftists promote what seem to be biblical principles, such as feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless (Matt. 25:40). The Social Gospel should be the Gospel of Jesus Christ with hands and feet. Instead, theological liberalism neglects to live out and proclaim the whole Gospel (and I hardly believe that they either know or care about the Gospel of Jesus Christ--I would imagine that those who don't even know the Gospel, let alone believe the Gospel, would be zealous to spread the Gospel), i.e. lovingly sharing with people that they are sinners like the rest of us, that they need to be saved from their sins, and that salvation is provided solely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus--the only way to Heaven (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 14:6). Liberal Jesus is as obnoxious, contorted, and perverse as Conservative Jesus, for theological liberalism rips the very heart out of Christianity, corrupting Christ and His Gospel, undermining the inerrant Word of God, blinding its victims from Truth. Liberal Jesus cares only for pseudo Intellectualism, faux Compassion, and the wasteland of mere Religion.
REPUBLICAN JESUS
Then there's the Republican Jesus, a perverse Jesus who weds together theology and politics. This is the Christian Nationalist Jesus, a Lord who intends to enact laws to keep everyone, including the unregenerate, under his thumb, while his representatives govern the land, and "lord themselves" (Matt. 20:25-28) over the people, hoping to usher in God's Kingdom. Never mind that Jesus insists that His Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). These religious zealots have a socio-religio-political agenda to forge and they will march forth in spite of the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matt. 5:1-48). Worshipers of Republican Jesus show up at Trump rallies or CPAC gatherings, waving the Christian flag, wearing MAGA hats, anxious for the next insurrection or civil war, while also looking for ways to legislate banning women from voting (e.g. wolves in sheep's clothing Doug Wilson and Joel Webbon). Many of them are false converts because they worship a false idol, Republican Jesus, whom they created in their own political image. They are blinded by their idol to the fact that Strength does not overcome Darkness (Ps. 20:7; Zech. 4:6) but Light (John 1:4, 5; 8:12). False god Republican Jesus cares only for Authority, Lordship, and Power.
CAVEAT
When religious people baptize themselves into the mire of politics, the political arena is not made holy, but the Church is tarnished. The tarnishing of Christ's Church in the U.S. began with the father of the Religious Right and the so-called Moral Majority, the late Jerry Falwell, who, in promoting his overt racist worldview at the time, sought to establish permanent segregation in this country by religio-political means. He, thankfully, repented of his racism. However, forty years later, and the Church is still reeling from its horrifying effects. Granted, not every conservative or every liberal who names the Name of Christ fits neatly in the above categories. There are always exceptions. There are godly conservative Christians and there are godly liberal Christians. There are horrible conservative so-called Christians and there are horrible liberal so-called Christians. What is sad is how some professing Christians portray Jesus--not from Scripture but from their own felt needs. Given the warnings in Scripture concerning believing in another Jesus, adhering to another Gospel, we should all be very careful.
FUNDAMENTALIST JESUS
One of the more heinous idols of false Jesus is that touted by religious Fundamentalists (e.g. Fundamentalist Independent Baptists or, because the FIB was not fundamentalist enough for the likes of devil-pastor Steven Anderson, the New Fundamentalist Independent Baptists). This is a LGBTQ-hating / LGBTQ-executing, works-based Jesus, light on grace, heavy on Law. This is the you-better-stay-in-line Jesus who demands absolute perfection from you (1 John 2:3-6); or, better yet, the you-better-do-whatever-the-pastor-says-and-you-better-believe-whatever-the-pastor-preaches-or-you're-going-to-Hell Jesus. This Jesus may have saved your wretched soul, and He may have justified you in the present, but you had better walk a fine and straight line for the rest of your life or you may not make it to Heaven. This Jesus makes you neurotic, stressed in constant self-examinations to make sure you're not a false convert, but that you are always doing good works (proving that you will be justified in the future, à la Pelagius), behaving yourself always, and endeavoring toward absolute holiness every single day of your life. After all, if you are not constantly pursuing and possessing holiness of life (sanctification), then you will not see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).
I was raised on a steady diet of the Fundamentalist Jesus. In our Southern Baptist church in the 1970s, if the sermon didn't "step on our toes" every Sunday morning, then the preacher was becoming liberal. Women could not wear pants. Men must wear a suit to church. This Jesus was deeply concerned about outward appearance--after all, you want to "look your best for Jesus," right? (One member didn't have a lot of money for nice, new clothes, and at times came to worship with the same few outfits she could afford, and sometimes she carried an odor, and, yes, some people made comments about her behind her back--yet she was one of the godliest women in the church!) Any semblance of modern music was deemed of the Devil. Church attendance (Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening) was socially mandated (after all, said the pastor, your Wednesday night crowd is the backbone of your church; interpretation: if you're a strong church member then you'll attend Wednesday night service because the last thing you want to be is a Sunday-morning-only "lukewarm" sort of Christian).
THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW
In pastor Dane Ortlund's book, Gentle and Lowly, he lifts the veil of the Jesus we find in the Gospels and in the New Testament letters. Pastor Dane reminds us that the heart, in biblical terms, is "not part of who we are but the center of who we are"† (18). Jesus reveals the center of who He is when He declares "for I am gentle and lowly in heart [at the core of My being]" (Matt. 11:29 ESV). Jesus is meek (the Greek word for gentle is also translated meek at Matthew 5:5) and He is lowly / humble (cf. Zech. 9:9). "Jesus is not trigger-happy" (19), or ready to pounce upon you when you sin, so very quick to get angry (Ps. 145:8, 9). Jesus is also not "harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding Person in the universe. The posture most natural to Him is not a pointed finger but open arms" (19). Jesus describes the core of His being as gentle, meek, lowly, humble, ready with open arms for anyone who will come to Him for rest (Matt. 11:28, 29, 30).
Is Jesus, then, a push-over? Is He weak? Hardly! For those who come to Him He is gentle. For those who oppose Him He is avenger:
JESUS AND MY SIN
What about when I sin? What about how many times I sin? Won't Jesus get frustrated with me, month after month, year after year, sinning and sinning more and sinning the same sin that trips me up all the time (that sharp tongue criticizing others; the neglect to help those in need; that bitterness toward certain people; the dishonoring of the dignity of people created in the image of God; that wasteful spending; the constant compulsive overeating; that flirtatious habit; that "wondering eye")? The apostle Paul asked the same questions: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate" (Rom. 7:15 NLT). The apostle Paul struggled with sin? He struggled with sinning the same sins over and over and over? Yes. He confesses: "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right but I can't. I want to do what is good but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway" (Rom. 7:18-19 NLT). Does that sound familiar to you? Have you wondered why you do the same? You hate sin and, yet, you find yourself not only sinning in some way but even sinning the same sin over and over and over, promising the Lord to stop, only to find yourself still sinning that same sin! How can Jesus love such a sinner? How can He put up with me? Certainly I disappoint Him a thousand times a day! No.
A pastor once said that you don't let God down because you don't hold God up! He is not biting His divine fingernails because of your many sins. What if you were to discover that Jesus actually sympathizes with, empathizes for, and loves you infinitely even in your sin? What was His deepest anguish? "The anguish of others. What drew His heart out to the point of tears? The tears of others [Matt. 14:14; 15:32; Mark 6:34; Luke 7:13; John 11:11-35]. Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving who do not simply receive Christ's mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by His enemies' testimony, the 'friend of sinners' (Luke 7:34)" (26-27). The "dominant note left ringing in our ears after reading the Gospels, the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the Holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces, and forgives those who least deserve it yet truly desire it" (27).
The Jesus I never knew is the Savior who loved me not because I was so lovable or so good or so worthy but because He is love (1 John 4:8) and He set His love on me. When Jesus sees us, wallowing in our sins, His "deepest impulse, His most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it" (30). Our sin tends to separate us from our Lord (Isa. 59:2)--meaning, we shrink back and away from Him, not run toward Him. We know our sin, we feel the filth, and we are disgusted and run away to hide. But Jesus is drawn to us right there, smack dab in the middle of that filth, intent on pulling us out of it. But for how long? Certainly God is not going to put up with me like this forever. Certainly there is a limit to His grace, His mercy, His longsuffering. One day, for certain, Jesus will say "Enough!" right? Not so.
When God lovingly reached down and graciously saved you, He knew all the sin that you were still to commit, even though you would commit those sins far in the future. He didn't save you so that you could show off how holy you could be. That's not even a possibility! He saved you, a sinner, to dislay "the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:5, 6). Salvation is about Him, not you, His glory and not yours. Jesus does not get frustrated when we come to Him
CONCLUSION
Are we to obey our Lord? Yes (John 14:15, 21, 23). Are we to pursue holiness? Yes (Heb. 12:14). Can we live in our sinfulness, not trusting in Christ as Savior, and expect to receive God's love and mercy and grace in salvation? Of course not (Mark 1:15; 1 John 3:6). "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" (Rom. 6:1-2 NLT). But do born again believers in Jesus not continue to sin? Yes (1 John 2:1). But there is a world of difference between remaining in a life defined by sin, not trusting in and loving Jesus Christ, and one who actually does love Christ, and hates his sin, because he has been born again. The latter is someone who wants to please the Lord, even though He will not do so sinlessly, and even though he still may sin, repent, and sin and repent. Those who are not born again believers do not care about sin, righteousness, or the coming judgment (John 16:8). Born again believers love their Lord, hate their sin, and look forward to the Day when sin will never again be an issue (Rev. 21:22-27). The born again believer wants to be rid of his sin, and not linger in it, nor be consumed by it. His heart has been changed, even though his old nature still lingers around, enticing him to sin (Rom. 7:21-25 NLT). The Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus of the New Testament, is so connected with the believer that He shares in his pain, in his longing to be rid of all evil, and is drawn to him when he is grieved by all manner of wickedness and shame and pain and suffering. I am eager to getting to know this biblical Jesus more and more.
__________
† Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020).
turning away from the One who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel--not that there really is another Gospel, but only some who are confusing you want to distort the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven should announce a gospel to you other than what we have proclaimed to you, let that person be accursed! As we have said before, so I now repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel other than what you received from us then let that person be accursed! (Gal. 1:6-9, my translation).But there are even other versions of Jesus within evangelical Christianity that do not rightly represent the Jesus of the New Testament.
DEMOCRAT JESUS
For example, there's the Democrat Jesus, a distorted Jesus as Social Justice warrior and Social Gospel preacher (Luke 6:20). Leftists promote what seem to be biblical principles, such as feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless (Matt. 25:40). The Social Gospel should be the Gospel of Jesus Christ with hands and feet. Instead, theological liberalism neglects to live out and proclaim the whole Gospel (and I hardly believe that they either know or care about the Gospel of Jesus Christ--I would imagine that those who don't even know the Gospel, let alone believe the Gospel, would be zealous to spread the Gospel), i.e. lovingly sharing with people that they are sinners like the rest of us, that they need to be saved from their sins, and that salvation is provided solely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus--the only way to Heaven (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 14:6). Liberal Jesus is as obnoxious, contorted, and perverse as Conservative Jesus, for theological liberalism rips the very heart out of Christianity, corrupting Christ and His Gospel, undermining the inerrant Word of God, blinding its victims from Truth. Liberal Jesus cares only for pseudo Intellectualism, faux Compassion, and the wasteland of mere Religion.
REPUBLICAN JESUS
Then there's the Republican Jesus, a perverse Jesus who weds together theology and politics. This is the Christian Nationalist Jesus, a Lord who intends to enact laws to keep everyone, including the unregenerate, under his thumb, while his representatives govern the land, and "lord themselves" (Matt. 20:25-28) over the people, hoping to usher in God's Kingdom. Never mind that Jesus insists that His Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). These religious zealots have a socio-religio-political agenda to forge and they will march forth in spite of the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matt. 5:1-48). Worshipers of Republican Jesus show up at Trump rallies or CPAC gatherings, waving the Christian flag, wearing MAGA hats, anxious for the next insurrection or civil war, while also looking for ways to legislate banning women from voting (e.g. wolves in sheep's clothing Doug Wilson and Joel Webbon). Many of them are false converts because they worship a false idol, Republican Jesus, whom they created in their own political image. They are blinded by their idol to the fact that Strength does not overcome Darkness (Ps. 20:7; Zech. 4:6) but Light (John 1:4, 5; 8:12). False god Republican Jesus cares only for Authority, Lordship, and Power.
CAVEAT
When religious people baptize themselves into the mire of politics, the political arena is not made holy, but the Church is tarnished. The tarnishing of Christ's Church in the U.S. began with the father of the Religious Right and the so-called Moral Majority, the late Jerry Falwell, who, in promoting his overt racist worldview at the time, sought to establish permanent segregation in this country by religio-political means. He, thankfully, repented of his racism. However, forty years later, and the Church is still reeling from its horrifying effects. Granted, not every conservative or every liberal who names the Name of Christ fits neatly in the above categories. There are always exceptions. There are godly conservative Christians and there are godly liberal Christians. There are horrible conservative so-called Christians and there are horrible liberal so-called Christians. What is sad is how some professing Christians portray Jesus--not from Scripture but from their own felt needs. Given the warnings in Scripture concerning believing in another Jesus, adhering to another Gospel, we should all be very careful.
FUNDAMENTALIST JESUS
One of the more heinous idols of false Jesus is that touted by religious Fundamentalists (e.g. Fundamentalist Independent Baptists or, because the FIB was not fundamentalist enough for the likes of devil-pastor Steven Anderson, the New Fundamentalist Independent Baptists). This is a LGBTQ-hating / LGBTQ-executing, works-based Jesus, light on grace, heavy on Law. This is the you-better-stay-in-line Jesus who demands absolute perfection from you (1 John 2:3-6); or, better yet, the you-better-do-whatever-the-pastor-says-and-you-better-believe-whatever-the-pastor-preaches-or-you're-going-to-Hell Jesus. This Jesus may have saved your wretched soul, and He may have justified you in the present, but you had better walk a fine and straight line for the rest of your life or you may not make it to Heaven. This Jesus makes you neurotic, stressed in constant self-examinations to make sure you're not a false convert, but that you are always doing good works (proving that you will be justified in the future, à la Pelagius), behaving yourself always, and endeavoring toward absolute holiness every single day of your life. After all, if you are not constantly pursuing and possessing holiness of life (sanctification), then you will not see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).
I was raised on a steady diet of the Fundamentalist Jesus. In our Southern Baptist church in the 1970s, if the sermon didn't "step on our toes" every Sunday morning, then the preacher was becoming liberal. Women could not wear pants. Men must wear a suit to church. This Jesus was deeply concerned about outward appearance--after all, you want to "look your best for Jesus," right? (One member didn't have a lot of money for nice, new clothes, and at times came to worship with the same few outfits she could afford, and sometimes she carried an odor, and, yes, some people made comments about her behind her back--yet she was one of the godliest women in the church!) Any semblance of modern music was deemed of the Devil. Church attendance (Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday evening) was socially mandated (after all, said the pastor, your Wednesday night crowd is the backbone of your church; interpretation: if you're a strong church member then you'll attend Wednesday night service because the last thing you want to be is a Sunday-morning-only "lukewarm" sort of Christian).
THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW
In pastor Dane Ortlund's book, Gentle and Lowly, he lifts the veil of the Jesus we find in the Gospels and in the New Testament letters. Pastor Dane reminds us that the heart, in biblical terms, is "not part of who we are but the center of who we are"† (18). Jesus reveals the center of who He is when He declares "for I am gentle and lowly in heart [at the core of My being]" (Matt. 11:29 ESV). Jesus is meek (the Greek word for gentle is also translated meek at Matthew 5:5) and He is lowly / humble (cf. Zech. 9:9). "Jesus is not trigger-happy" (19), or ready to pounce upon you when you sin, so very quick to get angry (Ps. 145:8, 9). Jesus is also not "harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding Person in the universe. The posture most natural to Him is not a pointed finger but open arms" (19). Jesus describes the core of His being as gentle, meek, lowly, humble, ready with open arms for anyone who will come to Him for rest (Matt. 11:28, 29, 30).
Is Jesus, then, a push-over? Is He weak? Hardly! For those who come to Him He is gentle. For those who oppose Him He is avenger:
Then I saw heaven opened [writes the apostle John], and behold, a white horse! The One sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a Name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the Name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a Name written, King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:11-16 ESV).Too many underestimate Jesus because He reveals the core of His being as gentle and lowly. But this disposition of His is "not who He is to everyone, indiscriminately. This is who He is for those who come to Him, who take His yoke upon them [those who want to be united to Him in this life and in the next], who cry to Him for help" (21). For those who challenge His sovereignty, and His justice, they will receive justice. Every person will either receive the grace of God, or the justice of God, but no one receives injustice from God. But for those who come to Him, needing His rest, His grace, His peace, His salvation, His redemption and restoration, they discover that "Gentleness is who He is. It is His heart. He can't un-gentle Himself toward His own [people] any more than you or I can change our eye color" (21). Jesus "never tires of sweeping us into His tender embrace. ... 'No,' says He; 'I am meek; gentleness is My nature and temper'" (23). Do you know this Jesus?
JESUS AND MY SIN
What about when I sin? What about how many times I sin? Won't Jesus get frustrated with me, month after month, year after year, sinning and sinning more and sinning the same sin that trips me up all the time (that sharp tongue criticizing others; the neglect to help those in need; that bitterness toward certain people; the dishonoring of the dignity of people created in the image of God; that wasteful spending; the constant compulsive overeating; that flirtatious habit; that "wondering eye")? The apostle Paul asked the same questions: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate" (Rom. 7:15 NLT). The apostle Paul struggled with sin? He struggled with sinning the same sins over and over and over? Yes. He confesses: "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right but I can't. I want to do what is good but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway" (Rom. 7:18-19 NLT). Does that sound familiar to you? Have you wondered why you do the same? You hate sin and, yet, you find yourself not only sinning in some way but even sinning the same sin over and over and over, promising the Lord to stop, only to find yourself still sinning that same sin! How can Jesus love such a sinner? How can He put up with me? Certainly I disappoint Him a thousand times a day! No.
A pastor once said that you don't let God down because you don't hold God up! He is not biting His divine fingernails because of your many sins. What if you were to discover that Jesus actually sympathizes with, empathizes for, and loves you infinitely even in your sin? What was His deepest anguish? "The anguish of others. What drew His heart out to the point of tears? The tears of others [Matt. 14:14; 15:32; Mark 6:34; Luke 7:13; John 11:11-35]. Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving who do not simply receive Christ's mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by His enemies' testimony, the 'friend of sinners' (Luke 7:34)" (26-27). The "dominant note left ringing in our ears after reading the Gospels, the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the Holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces, and forgives those who least deserve it yet truly desire it" (27).
The Jesus I never knew is the Savior who loved me not because I was so lovable or so good or so worthy but because He is love (1 John 4:8) and He set His love on me. When Jesus sees us, wallowing in our sins, His "deepest impulse, His most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it" (30). Our sin tends to separate us from our Lord (Isa. 59:2)--meaning, we shrink back and away from Him, not run toward Him. We know our sin, we feel the filth, and we are disgusted and run away to hide. But Jesus is drawn to us right there, smack dab in the middle of that filth, intent on pulling us out of it. But for how long? Certainly God is not going to put up with me like this forever. Certainly there is a limit to His grace, His mercy, His longsuffering. One day, for certain, Jesus will say "Enough!" right? Not so.
When God lovingly reached down and graciously saved you, He knew all the sin that you were still to commit, even though you would commit those sins far in the future. He didn't save you so that you could show off how holy you could be. That's not even a possibility! He saved you, a sinner, to dislay "the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:5, 6). Salvation is about Him, not you, His glory and not yours. Jesus does not get frustrated when we come to Him
for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That's the whole point. It's what He came to heal. He went down into the horror of death and plunged out through the other side in order to provide a limitless supply of mercy and grace to His people. ... He wants us to draw on His grace and mercy because it is who He is. ... Christ gets more joy and comfort than we do when we come to Him for help and mercy. In the same way that a loving husband gets more relief and comfort in his wife's healing than in his own, Christ "brings in to Himself more comfort ... than it procures to them" when He sees our sins being placed under His own blood. ... When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish [and sin], you are going with the flow of His own deepest wishes, not against them ... [W]hen we hold back, lurking in the shadows, fearful and failing, we miss out not only on our own increased comfort but on Christ's increased comfort. He lives for this. This is what He loves to do. His joy and ours rise and fall together (36-38).Do you know this Jesus? "All our natural inclinations tell us that Jesus is with us, on our side, present and helping when life is going well. [The text of Hebrews 4:14, 15, 16] says the opposite. It is in 'our weaknesses' that Jesus sympathizes with us" (46). Some of us are so used to the Jesus of Pietism and Revivalism (and Roman Catholicism) that we've lost sight of His mercy, His grace, His atoning work, His role as Mediator and Advocate, His proactive love for those He redeemed. We've become behavior moderators rather than honest disciples of Jesus. We portray ourselves in Church and Community as those who are more than conquerors, spiritual elites, prayer warriors and wholly sanctified--and we're not fooling anyone. That brave face we wear is a lie. Some professing Christians have become that Pharisee who prays at the altar, "Lord, I'm glad I'm not like poor sinners, but rather full of Your Spirit" (Luke 18:11-12), while the rest of us are beating our chests, time after time, praying "Lord, have mercy on me, a poor sinner" (Luke 18:13). Some of us don't need reminding from Bible-thumping pastors that we are sinners. We feel the sting of it at times in every breath we take and every day we live on earth. So we continually ask: Does Jesus care?
In our pain, Jesus is pained; in our suffering, He feels the suffering as His own even though it isn't--not that His invincible divinity [His deity as Son of God] is threatened, but in the sense that His heart is feelingly drawn into our distress. His human nature engages our troubles comprehensibly. His is a love that cannot be held back when He sees His people in pain (46). ... Our tendency is to feel intuitively that the more difficult life gets the more we are alone. As we sink further into pain we sink further into felt isolation. The Bible corrects us. Our pain never outstrips what He Himself shares in. We are never alone. That sorrow that feels so isolating, so unique, was endured by Him in the past and is now shouldered by Him in the present (48). ... [His heart is even drawn to us in our sin because His] sinlessness means that He knows temptation better than we ourselves [because He endured the temptation without giving in to its power--He knows what it's like to be tempted and to push through the temptation without sinning]. ... He therefore knows the strength of temptation better than any of us. Only He truly knows the cost. ... He Himself is not trapped in the hole of sin with us; He alone can pull us out (49).Know this for a certainty: "Jesus deals gently and only gently with all sinners who come to Him, irrespective of their particular offense, and just how heinous it is. What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to Him. Whatever our offense He deals gently with us. ... He knows our sinfulness far more deeply than we do" (54). "Our sinfulness runs so deep that a tepid measure of gentleness from Jesus would not be enough; but as deep our sinfulness runs, ever deeper runs His gentleness" (56).
CONCLUSION
Are we to obey our Lord? Yes (John 14:15, 21, 23). Are we to pursue holiness? Yes (Heb. 12:14). Can we live in our sinfulness, not trusting in Christ as Savior, and expect to receive God's love and mercy and grace in salvation? Of course not (Mark 1:15; 1 John 3:6). "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" (Rom. 6:1-2 NLT). But do born again believers in Jesus not continue to sin? Yes (1 John 2:1). But there is a world of difference between remaining in a life defined by sin, not trusting in and loving Jesus Christ, and one who actually does love Christ, and hates his sin, because he has been born again. The latter is someone who wants to please the Lord, even though He will not do so sinlessly, and even though he still may sin, repent, and sin and repent. Those who are not born again believers do not care about sin, righteousness, or the coming judgment (John 16:8). Born again believers love their Lord, hate their sin, and look forward to the Day when sin will never again be an issue (Rev. 21:22-27). The born again believer wants to be rid of his sin, and not linger in it, nor be consumed by it. His heart has been changed, even though his old nature still lingers around, enticing him to sin (Rom. 7:21-25 NLT). The Jesus of the Gospels, the Jesus of the New Testament, is so connected with the believer that He shares in his pain, in his longing to be rid of all evil, and is drawn to him when he is grieved by all manner of wickedness and shame and pain and suffering. I am eager to getting to know this biblical Jesus more and more.
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† Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020).
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