Is "believing" in Jesus enough, or should we be changed by Him, too? And if so, how?
Emerging from my contemplative time some mornings has been this overwhelming sense that to stress what we believe over a focus on allowing Jesus to change our lives, misses the point badly, and serves neither God nor our loving relationship with Him. And when we stress so much what we believe and distinguish it so sharply from what other Christians, others of faith, and nonbelievers believe, we spend too much of our time in disagreement and disapproval rather than being the new person in Christ we are called to be, rather than living the new life of love we are called to live in the world.
So, rather than one or another statement of faith or creed to be signed or sworn to, Christians might instead embrace a statement of identity to be sought after through Jesus. For example:
- Through prayer, study and meditation on Jesus' life and teaching, I will accept God's invitation to seek to be more like Jesus, to model my life after His example and teaching.
- Through Jesus, I will be open to and accept God's unqualified love for me, and will return that same love Him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength--all that I am--and will allow that love to flow over to all mankind--even those I dislike or who dislike me, even my enemies.
- Through Jesus, and within His context of final judgment, I will take into my heart His teaching that I do not serve Him if I do not serve the poor, those without clothing, food or drink, the sick, the stranger in our land, and the prisoner.
- Through Jesus, and with His compassion, humility and gentleness, I will allow my life and my walk with Him to be my statement of Christ and Christianity in the world, my weaknesses and failures notwithstanding.
- And another important part of Jesus' ministry was His intolerance of leaders characterized by self-righteousness, rigid and loveless legalism, and judgment lacking compassion and mercy. Jesus assailed them as vipers and their faith life as akin to dried old bones in white-washed tombs. Through Jesus, I will always be vigilant and clear about the identity of today's legalists and Pharisees, and those for whom greater identity in God through Christ is neither their apparent motivation nor the apparent basis for their religious behavior.
Amen
Paul's statement on the importance of faith is essential, of course. And so is James' statement that a faith without works is a dead faith. But most important, it seems to me, is Jesus teaching and example, and His call to a new life in Him--most important not only to the Body of Christ and the work of God's people in the world, but first and foremost to our loving, ever-changing, relationship and identity in Him. And without that, nothing real or good about faith or works endures.
First written: February 2008
© Gregory E. Hudson 2008
