When I was in high school, taking Drivers Education, I had an experience I’ll never forget. We were discussing the severity of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. To illustrate how fatal this can be, the teacher had us wear goggles that impaired our vision as though we were drunk. Not one student could walk a straight line, much less safely operate a vehicle.
IMPAIRED VISION
In the Church, I fear many teachers have handed their students goggles that have impaired their vision when it comes to truly understanding Jesus. We see Him, but we see Him incorrectly. Consequently, we aren’t walking a straight line. In Matthew 7:16, Jesus said that we would, “know them by their fruit.” Sadly, today there is not much that distinguishes the “righteous” from the “rebel”. Our fruit should look vastly different, yet, it sadly looks similar.
I believe this all ultimately boils down to the fact that our vision of who Jesus really is has been impaired. We know He is loving and compassionate, but that’s not all He is. Our favorite verses are ones like…
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NKJV
and the classic,
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 NKJV
Please don’t misunderstand me, these are some of my favorites as well. I am so thankful that we aren’t serving a God who is eagerly waiting for us to fall. He is indeed loving and compassionate, but that is not all He is. We’ve seen things one-sided. There is more to the story. The Jesus we love said some things that don’t fit the character we’ve made Him out to be. We either embrace Jesus for all He is or we don’t embrace Him at all.
We either embrace Jesus for all He is or we don’t embrace Him at all. Share on XHOW JESUS PREACHED
In Matthew 4, we discover the message that Jesus preached when He first began His ministry. Verse 17 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This was the ministry emphasis, Christ’s main message, when He began preaching – REPENT!
In this verse we don’t see any emphasis on “personal destiny”. He didn’t say anything about how many Twitter followers you’d get, or how much money you would make, or how comfortable your life would be if you would repent. He just said “REPENT”.
Then if you flip to the back of the book, in Revelation, Jesus is still preaching the same message He began with — REPENT! (See Rev 2:5,16,22 just to name a few.)
THE BOTTOM LINE
Isn’t it strange how different the message of the Church has become compared to the message of Jesus? We’re guilty of forcing Him into our mold and making Him into an image we’ve created. Though in our carnal minds we may deem our counterfeit Jesus more comfortable, what we’ve created is powerless and pitiful—unable to break chains and bring real freedom. It’s time we take off the goggles and look at Jesus uncensored!
Caleb and Ali live in East Tennessee where they serve at The Lift Church. With boldness and conviction, their deepest desire is to see the church revived and the world awakened. Learn more about The Lift by visiting theliftchurch.tv.
