To Be Least

      I recently found this post about the "Jesus is my Homeboy" shirts that have become popular. After reading the post and the comments I decided to throw in my two cents.

I think that putting Jesus's name on shirts is wrong simply because...

Exodus 20:7 states that, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

Also Deuteronomy 5:11, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

From what I see, putting Jesus's name on a shirt is lowering him down to the position of mere sinners and humans. Jesus is God, not a basketball player. This seems to be clearly a misuse of His name.

Later.

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. (1 John 1:6)

³⁵Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. ³⁶Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." (John 12)

¹⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. (Matthew 5)

      We as Christians must walk in the light, if we do not "we lie and do not live by the truth." We are the only ones who are "sons of light" in this dark world, we are to be witnesses to the truth. We are to proclaim the truth bodly without being ashamed of the gospel.

¹⁶ Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6)

     I was thinking after I wrote my previous post about the concept of being a slave to either sin or obedience. I realized that is one or the other. You either are a slave to sin, or a slave to obedience.

²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. (2 Peter 2)

     Some people believe that this passage is talking about a person that was not genuinely saved. However, I noticed that "they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ." Like I said before, you are either a slave to sin or to obedience and righteousness. There is no middle ground. This passage states that they escaped. The only way to escape the corruption of the world is through Jesus as this passage states. He is the only way. So if this person had not truly been saved, he could not have escaped the corruption of this world. You are either saved or your not saved, period.
     If they have not saved, they have not genuinely escaped the world. Because of this it is impossible to be "again entangled in it and overcome" if they were already entangled in it all along. You can not be entangled in something again that you have always been entangled in.
     The only way someone can escape the corruption of this world is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you have not truly accepted him as your Lord and Savior and committed your life to him, then you are not going to heaven and sin is still your master. Let me close with this verse from Matthew 6:24.

"No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other."

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6)

      I was thinking about this whole concept recently. Before we became Christians we were slaves to sin. However, now that we have been freed from the bondage of sin we are now slaves to righteousness. As this passage states, we either are slaves to sin (which leads to death) or we are slaves to obedience (which leads to eternal life). As Christians we obviously love Jesus. "Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'" (John 14:23) Another verse that supports this idea is 2 John 1:6, "And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."
      So we are either slaves to sin, or slaves to obedience. When we become Christians we are now slaves to obedience. The only way we as humans can be saved is by God's grace, and because of this we love him. As the previous verses I pointed out stated, if we love God we will obey his commands. Previously, sin was our master and now Jesus is our master. We no longer obey our sin and we now are to obey God.

²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2)

      This seems to all fit together. If someone claims to be Christian, but does not obey God, is not his faith useless? This is idea is supported by the well known verse in Matthew 5:13.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

      When we are born again we are now slaves to rigtheousness, slaves to obedience. If we truly love God we are to obey him. Belief alone can not save you. If you have faith, but no deed you are like the salt that has lost its saltiness. "It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

³At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

      That says it all in a couple of sentences. That is the essence of Christianity. Paul also addresses in this book how we as Christians should behave. immediately after this verse he writes, "And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone." (v. 8) Previously, "¹Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, ²to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."

May the grace of the Lord be with God's people.

¹³"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

      I often stumble upon statistics of top world religions, Christianity being usually the top, and I begin to wonder. I wonder if every single person included in these statistics is truly a Christian. Is Jesus Christ truly their top priority in their life. Is furthering His kingdom important to them? Many people think that by attending a local church they are Christians. Some even think that attending the Christmas Eve service will get them into heaven. Are these masses considered Christians? Many of my friends treat Christianity as simply something of repetition. It is a Sunday event during which they go through the motions. Are these considered Christians?
      Matthew 7:13 states that only a few find the road that leads to life. As I grow older I am beginning to see that this is indeed true. Many think they are on the right road, but they are deceiving themselves. Many think that they are "good" enough to get into heaven. Many think that by attending church they will enter heaven. Some even think that by going through the communion and reading the Bible will get them to heaven.
      The truth is simply this. The only way that we, sinners, can live eternally with our maker is through Jesus Christ, his son. He is the only way.

      I heard this story on the radio today. A young boy was allergic to bee stings and when he saw a bee fly near him he became increasingly frightened. His father reached out and crushed the bee with his hand. However the bee still fly away and the boy again became scared. His father opened his hand and showed his son that he had no need to fear the bee as the stinger was on his hand.
      In the same way Jesus has taken the pain, the suffering, and death in order that we may no longer fear death. He has conquered death by dieing and because he did not deserve death he rose again in three days. We have the opportunity to live eternally with Jesus forever.

He has risen!

      Today, my family and I finally went to see the film "The Passion of the Christ." The pain, the suffering Jesus went through was shown clearly, his love for those who hated him was obvious. I have heard some say that the film was too gory, or that it was anti-semetic, or that it was anti-feminist. I feel that these individuals were projecting their rejection of the message on the film. It was not the blood they had a problem with, it was the message. The message that Jesus, the Son of God, was tortured and crucified upon a cross to pay for our sins. That they are sinners, and that Jesus came to this earth to pay the penalty for their own sin. Three days after Jesus died, he came back to life, which is an idea that they reject. They cannot accept the truth.

Matthew 27

The Crucifixion

³²As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). ³⁴There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ³⁸Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"

⁴¹In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴²"He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' " ⁴⁴In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

⁴⁷When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."

⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."

⁵⁰And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

⁵¹At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. ⁵²The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

⁵⁴When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

⁵⁵Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. ⁵⁶Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' (Matthew 16:24)

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all. (Mark 9:35)

      Jesus was a perfect example of this concept of denying your self, of putting yourself lower then others. He was the least of all, and because of this he was the greatest.

Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68and said, "Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?" (Matthew 26:64)

The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" 65And they said many other insulting things to him. (Luke 22:63-64)

²⁸They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. ³⁰They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:28-31)

      Jesus, the Son of God, was insulted, beaten, mocked, and spit upon. To the world, a king should have a crown of gold, expensive garments, and a golden scepter. Yet Jesus has a crown of thorns, a scarlet robe, and a staff. This was not a sign of reverence, of respect, but a sign of mockery. Jesus was the "king of the Jews," however he was the opposite of a wordly king.

Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:38-40)

      Jesus was crucified in between two robbers, men who deserved the crime. Yet Jesus had done no wrong, had committed no sin. Jesus was not the one who deserved to be on that cross, we are the ones that deserve to be on that cross. Yet he took our place, he payed for all our sins.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

      I think often time we forget what Jesus did for us. He put himself as servant of all, the least of all. We deserved the what he went through on the cross, but Jesus took our place on the cross. God bless.