Who is Jesus to you?

I have heard it said, with increasing frequency lately, that all this world needs is Jesus.  While in principle I agree with this statement I believe it is becoming increasingly important that we define who this Jesus is that the world needs.  Jesus can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people: a teacher, a prophet, a good man, fully divine but not fully human, fully human but not fully divine, not bodily resurrected, not alive today, a religious fanatic, a historical figure, or any number of other things.  The Jesus that the world needs is much more than any of these and believing any one of them about Jesus is simply not enough.

Which brings me to the question, why are people waving the “all this world needs is Jesus” banner?  Is it an effort to bring some form of political correctness to the Gospel?  Is it to avoid denominational arguments or confusion?  Is it to try to avoid possible conflict with Bible translation, canon, or authority?  Or, is it an effort to remove all the “fluff” from a message that needs to focus on Jesus?  I am all for a Jesus-focused message and I do believe that sometimes the Christian “fluff” can get in the way of a truly Christ-centered message.  However, in an effort to avoid confrontation I am afraid that we are on the verge of dumbing down who Jesus really is in order to bring everyone under the same all-inclusive umbrella.  Jesus’ teaching and presence drew a “line in the sand” in His time and it should continue to do so today if we are presenting the whole Gospel. People should be brought to the point where they deal with who Jesus is instead of recognizing His existence, realizing something He did in His life, or professing some belief “in” Him in whatever way they define Him.  Jesus is defined in only one way and to present anything less is to avoid the full Gospel.

Now is the time that we need to be absolutely clear in our message.  The Jesus that the world needs is the only true Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible.  He is the eternally existing Son of God who was born into this world by a virgin.  He is fully divine and fully human.  He lived a sinless life and was killed on a cross.  On that cross He bore our sin as well as the wrath of God, which brought the needed reconciliation between God and His people.  He was resurrected three days later and still lives today.  This is the Jesus that the world needs.

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~ by Ben Trueblood on March 3, 2010.