Easy Jesus, Difficult Doctrines

Spirituality Column #221
February 1, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville – Current in Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Easy Jesus, Difficult Doctrines
By Bob Walters

Does our eternal salvation depend on doctrine?

Recall that Jesus was crucified between two robbers (Luke 23:32-33, 39-43), one of whom has ever since been known as “the good thief.” That’s because in Luke 23:42 he said, while hanging on the cross next to our Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

No doctrine, no church, no tracts, no conversion, no baptism, no weekend prayer retreats, church golf outings or even mission trips. The good thief simply recognized Jesus for Who He was and what He could do. He professed faith, in so many words, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, trusting him as Lord and Savior.

The good thief thus established a relationship by expressing the truth, and Jesus gave him paradise. The first human Christ “saved” had faith, not doctrine.

So in light of that, I’m going to go with no, doctrine is not the key to salvation. Salvation has everything to do with recognizing the person of Jesus Christ as the son of God. Salvation is about professing the truth of our relationship with God.

A smart friend of mine wrote: “What we call doctrine is in fact how we are related to God the Father in his Son because of how God came in Christ to bring to us His Kingdom. If we think of eternal life as a doctrine or a statement, the message of Jesus is lost; but if I take eternal life as the Father’s gift, then there is a reception of a gift rather than having merely an ‘idea’ called the doctrine of eternal life.”

In other words Jesus, and our relationship with God the Father through Jesus, is real. It’s not just a concept, idea, doctrine, explanation or vaporous opinion. It’s real.

Notice the good thief’s literal proximity to the body of Christ. We are taught that the church is the body of Christ (Colossians 1:18 and elsewhere), and that it is only by being part of the body of Christ, the church, that we can follow Jesus’ instruction of both equipping ourselves with faith, and sharing that faith with others (Matthew 28:18-20). So, don’t go it alone; join a church.

But Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

Like the sign says, “Jesus Saves.” That’s all the doctrine we really need.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) notes that the Bible also directs us to repentance, humility and service. But that’s because of Jesus Christ, not doctrine.

God and Man: Who's Seeking Whom?

Spirituality Column #220
January 25, 2011
Current in Carmel, Westfield, Noblesville, Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

God and Man: Who’s Seeking Whom?
By Bob Walters

Do we seek God, or is God seeking us?

Often lost in “seeker-sensitive” worship is the truth of what Jesus Christ’s earthly mission actually was. He was sent by God to seek us and bring us back to His flock like the shepherd who looks for the lost sheep in the New Testament parable.

Too often it’s marketed in churches that Jesus is entirely about “paying for” our sin and that our guilt should make us love Jesus. I can’t think of a worse way to describe God’s love, the work of Jesus Christ, or the reason for the Holy Spirit.

Folks, we’re sinners and we have to understand that. But fear and guilt will never help us find God; they only create focus on ourselves. Read the Bible and know that God already dealt with our sin by loving us and courageously giving His son.

When we immerse our “faith” in guilt and shame, we reject God’s love and free gift of salvation. We make God’s divine love a transaction or a payment plan instead of letting him just give it to us on His terms … on faith.

What does John 3:16 say? "For God was so mad at the world that He killed His only begotten Son so believers would be guilt-ridden forever?" No. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Then comes the clincher in John 3:17: Jesus was sent into the world “not to condemn the world” but so “the world through Him might be saved.”

It’s easy to become so focused on “seeking” or “finding” God that we forget that the greatest revelation of God’s grace and love was the fact that He already sent His Son humbly – without sin, into a fallen world, to seek us – to restore us to the perfect communion with the Godhead in the Kingdom of God, “not to condemn us.”

So don’t obsess over seeking God; He’s already seeking us. The biggest part of trusting God is trusting that He is looking for – and looking out for – each of his sheep.

Take some terrific Old Testament advice from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Over and over Jesus says that with faith in Him, we’ll be saved.

He’s telling us the truth.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com), noting that Jesus Christ came to find the sinners not the righteous, is thankful to have been found.

Belief in Belief is an Empty Sheath

Spirituality Column #219
January 18, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Belief in Belief is an Empty Sheath
By Bob Walters

I recently saw a poster titled “Believe” on a schoolroom wall.

Superimposed over a pleasant picture of a farm field was a parable about an old, blind horse that could pull a heavy wagon by itself as long as the farmer called out the names of several other horses in addition to its own. The moral of the poster is that because the horse “believed” it was hitched with a team, it found extra strength to pull the wagon alone.

Yeah, well. It’s a charming story for a moment, depicting overachievement and trust. In a spiritually sanitized school setting, it bespeaks personal perseverance, community effort and shared task. People helping people. Strength in numbers. I’ll never walk alone. It takes a village, etc.

But think about it; does the poster describe a belief worth having? To believe – or more pointedly, to be tricked into believing – that something strong, helpful and important is with us when it’s really not? Belief in a … lie?

Beyond the behavioral genius of the farmer, the poster’s context tells us – as do so many entities in our society and culture – to simply “believe.” Tricks and behavioralism, idols and false gods, are fine. Just, believe.

Ever been told to “believe in yourself”? How about to believe in a cause? Believe in a sports team or sports star? Believe to achieve? Believe everything will work out just fine?

The horse poster tells us to “believe” in things that aren’t permanent, lack ultimate truth, and, in this specific case, aren’t even there. Just, believe.

In a world created by God, visited and saved by Jesus Christ and indwelt with the Holy Spirit, my belief, faith and trust reside in the palpable reality that my help, my Lord, is really there. God is not a phantom team of horses.

Rather than debating our religious differences, let’s just say that under any circumstances it is empty sloganeering to have a relationship merely with the word “believe.” A relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the only proper context for knowing the bedrock permanence of belief that matters.

My wonderful old pastor Russ Blowers, now deceased, always had his Bible with him. “I never go anywhere without my sword,” he’d say. Ephesians 6:17 calls the Bible “the sword of the Spirit.”

Remove God and God’s word, and there is no sword in the sheath of belief.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) was initially encouraged to see the “Believe” poster in a public school classroom. Now he just feels sorry for the horse.

Faith and Knowing What You Know

Spirituality Column #218
January 11, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Faith and Knowing What You Know
By Bob Walters

Simon Peter evidently was the first of the 12 apostles to catch on to who Jesus really was.

In Matthew 16:16, Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20, St. Peter identifies Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Peter knew the truth not because someone told him. He knew because … well, he just knew.

Isn’t our faith still that way? We simply “know.” Like Peter, we see things we can’t explain. We feel things we can’t explain. We do things we can’t explain. We understand things we can’t explain.

Faith in Jesus Christ is a completely knowable, experiential, real, absolute, moral, living relationship, but trying to explain it falls short of proving it. Why is that?

The key is the next verse, Matthew 16:17. Jesus explains that Peter’s faith “was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” Maybe we can’t “prove it” to others because we’re not supposed to; because our faith in Christ comes from God. Faith is in our own hearts because God put it there, not because some human argued it into us.

The historical wave of mankind’s own knowledge hinders faith, too. The Classical Greek influence in epistemology – the study of how knowledge is formed and known – has urged the Western world to “prove it” for the past 2,500 years.

Thanks to the lasting intellectual influence of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, if we can’t prove something by talking about it or showing evidence, then what we have is an opinion, not the truth; certainly not The Truth – the ultimate, inviolable, objective Truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

When Hebrew Jesus showed up, he threw the Greek knowledge of knowledge entirely out of round. It wasn’t the intellectual elites who first identified the Truth. It was the simple, hot-headed, uneducated, until-then unspecial Jewish fisherman Peter who first understood what the anointed John the Baptist (not John the Apostle) had been saying all along … that Jesus was the Christ, the living Son of the Creator God.

We possess Truth not because a human argued it, but because God’s word demands it, Christ’s sacrifice proves it, the Holy Spirit reveals it, and my heart and mind know it. Jesus wasn’t here to argue His case with the Socratic Method.

When our faith and God’s Truth join forces, relax. There’s nothing left to prove.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves a good debate, but is thankful the Holy Spirit does the heavy lifting where faith is concerned.

Loving God without Reason

Spirituality Column #217
January 4, 2011
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Loving God without Reason
By Bob Walters

Have you ever asked …

“If God loves us so much, why would He permit (fill in the blank) – death, sin, disease, Satan, disaster, war, sadness, hunger, violence, cruelty … ?”

It’s a long list, and a question that separates many people from God.

The Bible tells us God created a perfect world in Genesis 1 and 2. “So,” we syllogize, “if that’s true, then …” we demand an explanation. We want answers and reasons. We want to know who’s in charge and what can be done about fixing things.

C’mon God, get with the program … I’m waiting here!

God the Creator Almighty, humans reasonably assume, is the very best place to lodge complaints, voice issues and seek answers about The Way Things Are. That’s one reason people seek God, go to church, get religion, etc.: in order to Fix Things.

When the fix they want doesn’t happen, when human expectations are unfulfilled, God begins to seem unreasonable, and logic tells us, “I’m at the wrong window. Surely there’s an answer, and this guy (God) doesn’t have one.”

So, we lose faith in God. Based on our reason, He can’t possibly love us.

Fresh into 2011, let’s examine reason as it relates to God, His love and our faith.

First, reason is a human thing, not a God thing. God didn’t reason the World into existence, He … created it. Reason is a tool God gave to mankind, presumably, to survive, express our freedom, and to help us discover God. I think this is true, or at least a good guess, because the Bible says nothing about “reason” applicable to God, only to mankind.

Besides, God would have no more need for reason than for a wristwatch. Where God lives – in eternity, in perfection, in community (the Trinity), in love, in His omniscient and omnipotent forever – the calculus of “figuring things out” – reason – would be utterly superfluous. It’s already figured out.

Second, divine love isn’t about reason. Humans use reason to define love, and then wonder why they lose it. God is pure love, and God giving us Jesus Christ – pure grace – should be all the evidence we need.

Third, the Bible says God will know our love by our faith, not by our reason.

Go ahead and ask God for reasons, but don’t be surprised when His answer is, “Love me, and have faith.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) hid the real problem inside the question. Satan is why things are so screwed up; he excels at giving us reasons to doubt our faith.