If You Don’t Accept Jesus for Who He is, You Won’t Get Jesus at All

Yesterday, Facebook put a vile and abhorrent false teacher on my feed, who claimed “Jesus isn’t your king,” while wearing a preacher’s frock and quoting Scriptures, and at the same time quoting the debunked and false “Gospel of Thomas” (it’s been debunked for over a millennia, but people like to dig it out and wave it around every decade or so). My wife and the boys asked why it would come across my feed, and I facetiously stated “the devil is in the algorithm.” I even declared, as Paul did of false teachers in Galatians 1:8 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” That word “accursed” is from the Greek word anathema, which literally translates “a man accursed, devoted to the direst of woes.” Paul’s language suggests that anyone who would pervert the Gospel should be accursed to hell.

Loved ones, I know this sounds harsh, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not sin-affirming, the Word of God is not up to us to interpret based on culture or lifestyle preference, and we do not change it to suit our own sin. We don’t get God on our own terms: the Garden of Eden, and all of human history following are proof. We are rebels, sinners against God and deserving of His wrath. Jesus died, taking the wrath of God on Himself that WE incurred. Who are we to introduce in to the Church, and insert in to the Gospel, the very things Jesus died for? Jesus IS King. He sets the rules. We don’t get to add to or remove from His word, and we come to Him on His terms. And what are those terms? Jesus said if anyone was to come after Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). We only get Jesus on His terms, or not at all, and the invitation to Christ is always “Come and Die.”

Luke 6:26-48“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”