The majority of professed Christians think the church to which you belong, or the specific faith you confess, doesn't matters much. They ask "Don't we all believe in Jesus." But in which Jesus do they believe?
As strange as it might sound, not everyone who professes faith in Jesus believes in the same Jesus. The apostle Paul made this clear. He wrote, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted-you may well put up with it. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)
How can men preach "another Jesus?" Only one man named Jesus was God's Son. Only one Jesus died for our sins and was raised the third day. Only one Jesus is seated in heaven at God's right hand, destined to judge the world at the last day.
The apostle wasn't talking about another person. He was talking about how people viewed and understood Jesus. To see Jesus differently than Scripture depicts him is to misunderstand Him and our relationship with Him.
The baby Jesus
During the Christmas season, we hear many people preach the baby Jesus, without preaching the Lord Jesus. It is much easier to worship a baby in a manger, a doll-like image of the Lord, than to obey Jesus the king. Seeing Jesus only as a baby is seeing a Jesus who never speaks, acts, commands, or makes demands of us. He is passive and silent.
But the baby Jesus grew into a man. Subsequently, He taught God's truth, suffered death to pay for our sins, and rose from the dead. Then He received "all authority" (Matthew 28:20) and ascended into heaven to sit at God's right hand. THIS is the Jesus we must confess in order to be saved (Philippians 2:9-12; Hebrews 5:9).
The compassionate Jesus
A huge number of those who profess to be Christians see only the compassionate Jesus, who fed the hungry, healed the sick, and identified with the poor. They do not know the angry Jesus, who condemned defiant sin, hypocrisy, false teaching, and substituting tradition for God's commands.
But the gospel tells us Jesus looked with anger at the hypocritical religionists of his day (Mark 3:5). His language evidenced His anger when he called them hypocrites and blind guides, fools, white-washed tombs, and a brood of vipers. If a preacher today uses such terms to refer to false teachers, he is called unchristian, implying such language does not follow Jesus' example. Such reactions reflect the fact that many believe in a Jesus other than the one the Bible presents.
The tolerant Jesus
Most people see Jesus as tolerant and accepting. The idea of a strict Jesus is almost foreign to modern thinking. Certainly, Jesus was patient. He taught the ignorant and corrected the mistaken. He was renowned for going among the worst sinners and making them His friends.
But Jesus didn't give unquestioning acceptance to sinners. He demanded repentance and taught them to "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)
He declared, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) This Jesus is almost unknown in America today.
The saving Jesus
Undoubtedly, the greatest gospel truth about Jesus is that He came to earth as a man to die for our sins and save us from eternal hell. John 3:16 summarizes that truth.
When Jesus came to earth the first time, He made it clear that He did not come to judge but to save (John 12:47). But Jesus' salvation work on earth does not give a complete view of the biblical Jesus. Scripture also teaches that Jesus will return and that His second appearance will be to judge the world. The apostle Paul declared that Jesus "will judge the living and the dead at His appearing," and so we ought to preach the word to prepare people for the Lord's second coming. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul taught: "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." In the next verse, we read that he told the Corinthians, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." (2 Corinthians 5:11)
Today, the Jesus who judges is virtually unknown. Men preach another Jesus, who takes all men to heaven and who punishes no one.
As you can see, the religious world at large sees and preaches "another Jesus," not the one we read about in our Bibles.
Brother Blackaby has hit the nail on the head. Sadly, the Jesus about whom so many preach cannot be found in the pages between Genesis and Revelation. Certainly, these people are not reading God's infallible word.
Some are preaching about some additional types of Jesus. Following are a couple of them.
A Jesus who can't see what brethren are doing
In Hebrews 4:13, we read: "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Jesus sees and knows all that God's children do or don't do. Some brethren gossip and have ill will against other brethren and convince themselves that God is overlooking their sin. Regardless what kind of life we live before others, God knows the truth about our lives, and we need to remember that He is watching us.
A Jesus who overlooks religious differences
A short while ago, the pope died. On Larry King Live, Larry King interviewed Billy Graham. Mr. King asked him if he believed the pope was in heaven. His answer-"absolutely!" How can a Baptist preacher believe and teach that the deceased head of the Roman Catholic Church is in heaven; they don't even agree on what the Bible teaches. Many people made such statements following the pope's death. One new reporter commented, "he spent his life opening doors directing others to heaven, now Christ is opening the door, with Mary at His side, waiting to bring the pope home with Him." Will the Father overlook, and just "sweep under the rug," the fact that a man on earth claimed to have the authority He gave to the Son (Matthew 28:18).
The Jesus in men's minds does not even remotely resemble the one we read about in His word. How sad that people just "redesign and reinvent" Jesus and think there will be no consequences associated with that line of reasoning. Please read Galatians 1:6-11. Men are simply inventing a new Jesus who is more in line with their own thinking. (KMG)