This morning, as I was on my way to breakfast, I was thinking about the many subscription services that there are. Disney has one (or several, depending on your perspective), there are services for Christians, for Amazon Prime subscribers, and a plethora of others too tedious to list. You can have the TV services you want, if you’re willing to pay. Isn’t it funny, though, how people treat Jesus like a subscription service? If you only go on Sundays, you feel like you’re in, but you get the basic package, some churches add more to the Gospel, while some try to take away from it. Basically, we treat Jesus as if He is a product for our entertainment and convenience, and not Lord and Savior.
Loved ones, there is no “Gospel+” subscription, or basic package. There is only surrender to Christ, or seeking one’s self. The choice is up to you, really. We have the Scriptures, which have been unaltered since they were written (don’t give me that about corrupted, nuances of language, sure, but the manuscript evidence supports me in this!), and they tell us of History, prophecies, most of which have come true, and the rest which are to be fulfilled in the End, and, especially, God’s plan of salvation for humanity which was fulfilled through Jesus Christ. And that is the point. There is no other way in which we can be saved from our own self-destructive tendencies (and our tendencies for the destruction of others, for that matter) than by Jesus Christ, who lived, died and rose again to conquer sin and death. He is the only way by which we must be saved, and if you’re offended by the Gospel or the Scriptures, it means you’re in offense of them! You can’t have Jesus your way, my friends. We can only have Him on His terms. Christ is King, not me, not you. Let us act accordingly.
Matthew 16:24-28
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Luke 9:57-62
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
James 4:1-12
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
