4 Distractions from the true Christ
Well, just the first 2 for now ...
And we're back at it. So there's basically four; there's four distractions from the true Christ. You know, it's not difficult to eliminate these four options as being “less-than-amazing.” :)
So we're all very critical by nature, right? To a point where it's almost not funny. But we need to keep a good spirit and kind of laugh a little bit. All right?
So the four distractions from the true, pure Christ, … which we kind of know Who Christ is, but one way to define Him clearly, is to define everything that is NOT Christ.
You've maybe heard there's two ways to define a spoon. You can define a spoon as metal, shaped, handle, scoop, handheld, all that fun stuff. So you can define the spoon … OR you could define the spoon by describing ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that is not qualified as a spoon. That would be a really long definition. But a spoon is not ________ …. right? A spoon is NOT a fork, it is NOT a knife.
All right? So there's two ways to identify Christ. The the true, pure Christ is who He is. And if there's one thing we need to get right in this lifetime, it's a clear understanding of who God is, right? Because if we leave this life and we kind of missed the core concept of who our Creator, who our Christ, who this Person of compassion is, man, we missed a lot of living. So let's make sure we are not falling into one of these four distracted, distorted traps of a partial definition, or a re-definition of the true identity of Christ.
(This episode makes more sense when listening to the audio version, if you can.)
Because, one more illustration, … you want to be known as who you truly are, right? And when somebody has a distorted perception of your identity, you almost feel compelled to step in and say, “Well, I'd really, I really wish you could know accurately who I am, because that's me. It's my identity. Not that I'm super amazing as a person or anything, but just please don't believe a lie. You know, I'd like you to know the the truth about me, right?” So, how much more does not God want us to know the truth about Him, … as the truth is in Jesus.
When we get a good understanding of who He is, a lot of things make sense.
Things become peaceful. They become calm. We can make progress. We can be productive. We can be less nervous.
We don't have to have a spirit of fear. We don't have to freak out. We don't have to put all things on our shoulders. We don't have to be hyper-productive. We can be, oh, we can be a BEING instead of just “a doing”. All right?
Four misperceptions of Christ. Number one, He never showed up.
What? He's not here yet?
He never came to Earth. He's never visited. Yeah. So there's this God being, … this is the misperception. There is a God, right? But this God is lacking compassion. He's waiting till the absolute last minute to send any Messenger, any Word. There's been very little communication. God is very distant. He's silent. He doesn't return phone calls or emails or outreaches or prayers or requests or notes or letters. He just clicks and hangs up and has not yet sent the Messiah. Yet.
He's not yet reached out to the Earth. The Earth is still hungering and waiting and wanting and believing in this Promise of the arrival of the Messiah. But there are millions upon millions of people across the world who have this misperception that Christ has not yet come. The anointed of God, the Savior of the world, the Messiah is mysteriously on holdout. He's holding out for … contract terms, higher money, longer play, more game time, more screen time?
What? What could He possibly be holding out for at this point? Is the world evil enough that we need a Rescuer? Is the world hungry enough that we're ready for a Messiah? Is the world qualified?
It really doesn't come down to us. It comes down to the identity of God.
What kind of a God lacks compassion to, to not get involved in this relationship enough to hold back sending His Son? There are millions upon millions of people who literally believe there is no Christ yet. That's a misperception.
I mean, come on, just please think about it. Do you want to believe in a God Who's not going to send a rescue plan?
Anyway, misperception number two: God sent Christ, but He didn't quite do it all.
He, you know, we need God +. We need Jesus +.
So Jesus came, He was part of the plan.
He provided SOME of the grace; and then they use that fluffy word, grace. They love to stretch the word “grace”. They like to squeeze the word grace. It's a mystical, ethereal, fluffy-cloud word.
So Jesus did PART of the work.
We'll switch it, right? To the word work; we know the word work. That's solid, that's hammer, that's blisters, that's put the gloves on. So, work. Jesus did MOST of the work, but then we've got to ADD to it. The saints have to add to it. We need a little extra muscle. We need a little more work.
So I've gotta do the work. Maybe Jesus did 98%, but man, that 2%, it's up to me. It's up to Mary, it's up to St. Peter. It's up to St. Paul. It's up to St. So-and-so.
So it's Jesus +. He's insufficient.
He did not completely fulfill, He left some of it up to us. Cuz we have to participate. “We're valuable. Are we outta the equation? There's no way!!” We're very prideful people. We have to insert ourselves where we're not necessary. We have to provide “help” when no help was required.
Daddy's mowing the lawn; let daddy mow the lawn.
Stop getting out. You know, it's just kids. Kids want to participate. We wanna go “help” God. So God sent the Savior to the world and Jesus paid 98% of the bill, but we still owe 2%?
That's a VAST misperception. In fact, it's probably one of the highest-held misperceptions, is that there's got to be personal involvement to “help” pay the ticket.
Because Jesus paid part of Hell. But I owe 2% of Hell. All right, “How much is 2% of Hell?”
Correct answer: Way too much.
So Jesus paid 98% of my eternal destiny, but I owe 2% of eternity.
Are we processing?
“How long is 2% of eternity?”
Correct answer: Way too long.
All right. So Jesus paid for 98% of my sin-debt, my load, all my Godless thoughts, all my less-than-best thinking, all my human effort, which frankly is never gonna be perfect. It's never gonna be ideal. I'm always gonna have some room for improvement. You know, I'm gonna still have to brush my teeth; I'm gonna have to use mouthwash. I am a human. I'm a rotting flesh thing.
And somehow it is so prideful to believe that I owe God 2% cuz He couldn't cover the whole bill.
So let's say that salvation is a bill, right? Is it worth one Mil or is it worth one Bil?
It's worth at least a Tril!
So let's say that salvation costs a Trillion dollars, and Jesus could only fork out 98%.
I owe 2% of a Trillion dollars.
Long pause.
“How much is 2% of a trillion dollars?”
More than I can afford?
That is the correct answer! You keep getting these right?! You keep knocking it out of the park. You are on time, on target, batting 98% today!
So this 2% I-gotta-do-it attitude is gonna get me 2% off-target from trusting Christ completely, right?
So if I have to believe to receive, and I only believe a 98%, a lot of people are gonna miss Heaven by 2%.
What? Well that, that would be perfect cuz if the devil only has to add a small amount of error and most of the truth is present, but he only perverts it slightly, it's way more believable, right? 2% of rat poison is rat poison. 98% is good food.
Pure water: it's “only” 2% saliva. You know somebody spit in there; do you wanna drink it? It's rotten. That's how the devil works. He loves deception. Deception has to be slight, it has to be small, and it has to be powerful, potent, destructive, venomous.
So we don't want a Christ who is incapable of completing His purpose, which is salvation. The word Christ Jesus, … the word “Jesus” means “Savior”, right? He's gotta save us some something … FROM something and He must save us ALL the way.
One of your favorite words in the Bible, if you just have a Bible app and you search the word “all” …. A L L, and you start reading the promises of God; if you have any emotion in your being, when you read through Romans and you read through Hebrews about that Jesus paid it “ALL” 100,000%! It's an ALL or nothing deal with this Jesus situation.
There's no such thing as a 98% Jesus.
That's a misperception, people.
There's two more misperceptions, and I'll have to come back. I gotta grab some groceries. :)