Thursday, September 1, 2011
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
This is a question that has been asked by countless Christians down through the ages, but during the 1990s in our country it was asked so many times that it was abbreviated to WWJD and came to be plastered on countless bracelets and key chains.
"What would Jesus do?" Is certainly a question that requires us to search our hearts. It's not an unhealthy question in and of itself, that is, provided that we recognize that we don't do what Jesus would do. In fact, what we do often (sin), Jesus never did. If we are honest, this question serves very well to show us our sin.
As sinners who don't measure up to God's perfect standards, and know it, we ask a more important question: "What DID Jesus DO?"
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
We were by nature and deed at enmity with God and needed to be reconciled to Him.
There are some today who suggest that the situation wasn't really all that bad. After all, we live in a beautiful place. The sun shines and the rain falls. We have food and clothing -- even air conditioned homes! If God were angry with us, wouldn't this place look like the face of the moon?
If we look only at the creation we might conclude that things aren't so bad. But the fact that GOD is kind and good to those who don't deserve it does not nullify what His Word declares, namely that our sins separate us from Him (Romans 3:10-20; Isaiah 59:2). God's solution to the problem certainly shows how serious it was. Thomas Kelly points to that very thing when he says:
Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANOINTED,
Son of Man and Son of God.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 153:3)
God's mercy provided the solution. God didn't call upon us to provide a solution. God turned to His only begotten Son, Jesus, who committed no sin. He was charged with your sin and mine -- made to be sin. Jesus received our sin and we receive His righteousness, His perfection credited to our accounts.
What did Jesus do? He reconciled us to God!
