Stop Impersonating Jesus
“Then a man from the country of Samaria came by. He went up to the man. As he saw him, he had loving-pity on him.” -Luke 10:33, NLV
“The Samaritan, then, participates in the compassion and covenantal faithfulness of God, who sees and responds with salvific care.” – Joel B. Green
“Jesus does not supply information as to whom one should help; failure to keep the commandment springs not from lack of information but from lack of love. It was not fresh knowledge that the lawyer needed, but a new heart- in plain English, conversion.”- I Howard Marshall
“At the cross that relieves my conscience let me learn lessons of self-denial, forgiveness and submission, feel motives to obedience, find resources for all needs of the divine life. Then let me be what I profess, do as well as teach, live as well as hear religion.” - from A Neophyte’s Devotion, as it appears in The Valley of Vision a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions edited by Arthur Bennet
How quickly we forget that our calling as followers of Jesus is not to pretend to be like Jesus. Acting as Jesus would act is not enough. We must be transformed from the inside out so that, our lives flow out of Jesus’ life in us. Once the inward transformation happens, then, and only then, can the outward actions be more than impersonation. Many of us are good at the activity of Christlikeness for short stints. But, like the lady pictured above, our ‘loving actions’ do not match our hearts. This is not an excuse for us to be unloving, rather it is a call for radical transformation over fakery. The reality for many disciples is that, we would rather take the faster and easier route of becoming a religious expert than the slower, harder (and often messier) route of being like Jesus. For Jesus did not act out of character with His personhood. No, His life and ministry flowed out of who He was. How and why did He act on behalf of rebel humanity as Savior? Because, as One who is love, He saw rebel humanity’s need and lovingly responded by laying down His life for us. His saving work was not mechanical obedience to a command of God or a coldly planned redemptive act. His saving worked flowed out of the core of His being. He had loving-pity on us and so acted in His salvific work. This is where again, the core of our Christian life is in dying and surrender. We must die so that Christ’s life might fill us. We must let the Holy Spirit animate and empower us. For if we do, then our action will flow not from rules but our new life in Christ. This is why Paul speaks so boldly of our being able to live out the law (see Romans 8:1-11). The reality of the “Good Samaritan” is that all his helping activity on behalf of the man flowed out of his loving-pity. Love and mercy are always to be first internal and then external. Jesus interaction with the legal expert shouldn’t have left him wondering what he could do to inherit eternal life, it should have left him wondering how he could do it. How the activity could flow from his being rather than his discipline. And in this, as an expert in the law he should have had a head start. For the heart of the law, that is its primary intention was not to force external rules on an unchanged person but, to bring home the reality that WHO God is was to be reflected in WHO the people of God were. In other words, the heart was not obedience to a code but a changed person. This is why the law in total points a person to Christ. For it shows us the one thing the law cannot do change a person’s heart. Transformation comes not by the law but by the Spirit. So, stop impersonating Jesus and start being Jesus. Let His life flow through you. For Jesus is desperately needed in the lives of the people around you, as desperately as the life of Jesus is needed in you.
Further questions for application and discussion:
· Is there one area that you are particularly good at being an ‘expert’ in the law and a novice at inward transformation? How will you apply the gospel to that area of your life?
· When you see people living out the destructive consequences of rebellion from God, how do you respond? Loving-pity? Judgement? Cynicism? How can you respond like Jesus?
· What is one area of your life that you can see transformation happening? In other words, Where is the life of Jesus flowing through your life?
BLOG BONUSES: A song to sing and prayers to pray
Here’s a great musical reminder about making our lives match our beliefs: PREACH
The Valley of Vision is a fantastic collection of Puritan prayers and devotions which I’ve found helpful personally and in leading corporate prayer. Here is one of those prayers in total (an excerpt was shared above):
Spiritus Sanctus
O Holy Spirit,
As the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water, Haven full of glory, so may my heart be full of thee.
Vain are all divine purposes of love and the redemption wrought by Jesus except though work within, regenerating by they power, giving me eyes to see Jesus, showing me the realities of the unseen world.
Give me thyself without measure, as an unimpaired fountain, as inexhaustible riches.
I bewail my coldness, poverty, emptiness, imperfect vision, languid service, prayerless prayers, praiseless praises.
Suffer me not to grieve or resist thee.
Come as power, to expel every rebel lust, to reign supreme and keep me thine;
Come as teacher, leading me into all truth, filling me with all understanding;
Come as love, that I may adore the Father, and love him as my all;
Come as joy, to dwell in me, move in me, animate me;
Come as light, illuminating the Scripture, moulding me in its laws;
Come as sanctifier, body, soul and spirit wholly thine;
Come as helper, with strength to bless and keep, directing my every step;
Come as beautifier, bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos.
Magnify to me thy glory by being magnified in me, and make me redolent of thy fragrance.