Most to be pitied or truly saved?
Daily Reading: Leviticus 13, Psalm 103, 1 Corinthians 15, Proverbs 13
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2, 17-19
There is a growing sentiment in today’s world that Jesus was simply a wise teacher.
He was a man that was full of wisdom, had lots of great little nuggets of life advice, and was worth learning from; like many other religious figures and philosophers throughout history.
However, he wasn’t actually the son of God. He didn’t actually raise from the dead. Believeing in him is simply one of many ways that someone can find their way to God.
It is a comforting thought in today’s world.
As human beings, there is a natural tendency to want to created God in our own image instead of remembering that we were created in his. We have a tendency to want to place Jesus into whatever box is most comfortable for us.
Society does this at scale.
Paul tells us today, if this is true, and Jesus never rose from the dead, then as Christians:
“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
“…you have believed in vain.”
In the book “Mere Christianity” the author C.S. Lewis puts it perfectly:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
If we claim to follow Jesus, but also claim that he was just a wise teacher…nothing more than one of the original spiritual influencers in ancient times, then we follow an insane person.
And, according to Paul, we are the people in this world most to be pitied.
This is such an important issue for all followers of Jesus to wrestle with in today’s world. Every year there is more pressure to believe that there is no fundamental truth in this world. There are more voices that sound attractive, but teach a false doctrine.
As Christians, Paul encourages us today to remember that our faith starts with this:
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
We do not worship a philosopher.
We do not devote our lives to a wise teacher.
We serve a risen king.
We serve a Jesus that came to earth willingly to pay the price for our sins, that we could never pay ourselves.
Anything less cheapens the sacrifice that Jesus made.
Anything less and we are most to be pitied.
Thank God Jesus actually came, rose from the dead, and that this was witnessed by hundreds of real people!
We didn’t deserve Jesus, and yet he came anyway.
We didn’t deserve God’s grace, and yet we were given it.
Our faith is rooted in the truth of the gospel.
Praise God!
Daily Reflection & Dialogue
When has it been tempting in my own life to accept a watered down version of the Christian faith, instead of the full true version of the Bible?
