J
JRKH
Guest
Recently we enjoyed a thread here called “What Sola did Jesus Teach”. It turned into such a pleasant, and spiritually re-enforcing experience that I decided to expand upon it a little. Therefore I invite every Christian in every faith walk to consider this:
A Christian, by definition holds to a set of beliefs based upon the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the 4 Gospels contained in the Christian Bible. A Christian must first of all believe in and accept Christ’s passion death and resurrection as this is regarded as the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
Secondly, but equal in importance is to recognize and accept the teachings of Christ during His ministry. These teachings are evident in both words and deeds. These teachings, the Christian must put into practice, to the best of his/her ability, in order to truly claim the name “Christian”, that is, a follower of Christ. Therefore any faith construct must take as it’s core the teachings of Christ.
When studying or developing an understanding of Christian teaching it is necessary to understand the construction of Sacred Scripture. Without this it is easy to fall into confusion. I am not talking about a deep difficult understanding of language, sentence construction, translation variances or other scholarly devices, but rather an understanding of the relative importance of the various books in the Bible.
Some will say that all of the Books of the bible are equally important since we accept them all as being divinely inspired. In one sense this is true. It is important that we have all of the Books, but it does not mean that they all carry the same weight in our personal understanding and application to our lives and salvation journey. For instance we read many laws and ordinances in the OT that we are told later that we don’t have to follow as Christians. Thus we know that the OT Laws are not as important as the NT commands.
If one is to declare ones self, Christian, it is a natural conclusion that the 4 Gospels, which contain Jesus actual teachings, would be the most important books in the Bible. Any Truly Christian Belief system must, then build upon the lessons learned at the master’s feet. Our walk with Jesus must begin with His teachings and only then can other teachings/interpretations be introduced to support/define these teachings.
Around the Gospels are built the supporting documents for Christ’s teachings. These are, first the Epistles, which contain various interpretations and explanations on the teachings of Jesus, Then Acts with it’s descriptions of the Early Church, Followed by the OT which contains references which Jesus uses, and finally (in my personal view) Revelation, which contains little of significant use in our day to day walk with Christ.
Jesus spent three years teaching His disciples how to live in, promote and spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God. All of these lessons are contained in the Gospels. Therefore in following Christ it is necessary to read and understand the lessons of the Gospels in their entirely, as a whole, and not as a series of separate chapters and verses to be defined or dissected. This is the first lesson for the True Christian, to read the Gospels as a whole and let their lessons flow over and around you.
Jesus is teaching a “Total” message; a way of life, a call to holiness. He extols us to move beyond ourselves, and beyond mindless obedience to the letter of some “Law”. Regardless of what those around Him were doing, or what they asked about salvation, He always asked for a bit more. He asked this, not as a condemnation, but as a revelation. He did not tell us this as “God”, but as a fellow man. Jesus, we are taught, is fully human as well as fully God. Therefore does it make sense that Jesus would ask more of His fellow man than what He knew we were capable of? In this Jesus places a challenge before us. That Challenge is to live as He lived and to love as he loves, even unto death. True Christianity demands no less. He demonstrated this in the most profound way by His acceptance of the Cross-, His loving forgiveness of His Tormentors and the ultimate Triumph in His Resurrection.
By His teaching, Jesus gave us no “Sola”, beyond that of Love in action. Yes we must believe; yes we must have faith; yes we must trust in Him, but just as importantly we must DO; we must Love; we must heal; we must persevere; we must sin no more; we must be humble; we must be honest and trustworthy etc. and then, in his loving goodness he told us that, if we failed, he would forgive us if we turn back to Him. From the Sermon on the Mount, to His command to make disciples of all nations, Jesus taught a fellowship of Love and Love in action; a call to Holiness and forgiveness.
Those who base their theology primarily on quotes from those who followed Jesus make a grave error for to do so subverts the lessons of Jesus. When one declares for instance a doctrine of Faith Alone and uses primarily quotations from Paul to support it, that person becomes then a disciple of Paul and not a disciple of Jesus. They become a Paulian instead of a Christian for they put greater stock in the preaching of a disciple of Christ than they do in Christ Himself.
Equally as dangerous is pulling verses from this or that place in the Bible and stringing them together to form some kind of whole. This method can, and has been, used to support the most outlandish ideas that fly in the face of Christ’s message of Love for us.
I ask all of us here to examine our beliefs in this light. Does our belief system jive with the totality of Christ’s message, or do we rely too much on other influences, or just on certain portions of the Total message. I pray that we do this that we may draw closer to our Lord and to each other in Truly Christian Love and Fellowship. That we may show everyone we come in contact with that calm, serene, confidence of the true Child of God and Brother of Christ.
Peace
James
A Christian, by definition holds to a set of beliefs based upon the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the 4 Gospels contained in the Christian Bible. A Christian must first of all believe in and accept Christ’s passion death and resurrection as this is regarded as the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
Secondly, but equal in importance is to recognize and accept the teachings of Christ during His ministry. These teachings are evident in both words and deeds. These teachings, the Christian must put into practice, to the best of his/her ability, in order to truly claim the name “Christian”, that is, a follower of Christ. Therefore any faith construct must take as it’s core the teachings of Christ.
When studying or developing an understanding of Christian teaching it is necessary to understand the construction of Sacred Scripture. Without this it is easy to fall into confusion. I am not talking about a deep difficult understanding of language, sentence construction, translation variances or other scholarly devices, but rather an understanding of the relative importance of the various books in the Bible.
Some will say that all of the Books of the bible are equally important since we accept them all as being divinely inspired. In one sense this is true. It is important that we have all of the Books, but it does not mean that they all carry the same weight in our personal understanding and application to our lives and salvation journey. For instance we read many laws and ordinances in the OT that we are told later that we don’t have to follow as Christians. Thus we know that the OT Laws are not as important as the NT commands.
If one is to declare ones self, Christian, it is a natural conclusion that the 4 Gospels, which contain Jesus actual teachings, would be the most important books in the Bible. Any Truly Christian Belief system must, then build upon the lessons learned at the master’s feet. Our walk with Jesus must begin with His teachings and only then can other teachings/interpretations be introduced to support/define these teachings.
Around the Gospels are built the supporting documents for Christ’s teachings. These are, first the Epistles, which contain various interpretations and explanations on the teachings of Jesus, Then Acts with it’s descriptions of the Early Church, Followed by the OT which contains references which Jesus uses, and finally (in my personal view) Revelation, which contains little of significant use in our day to day walk with Christ.
Jesus spent three years teaching His disciples how to live in, promote and spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God. All of these lessons are contained in the Gospels. Therefore in following Christ it is necessary to read and understand the lessons of the Gospels in their entirely, as a whole, and not as a series of separate chapters and verses to be defined or dissected. This is the first lesson for the True Christian, to read the Gospels as a whole and let their lessons flow over and around you.
Jesus is teaching a “Total” message; a way of life, a call to holiness. He extols us to move beyond ourselves, and beyond mindless obedience to the letter of some “Law”. Regardless of what those around Him were doing, or what they asked about salvation, He always asked for a bit more. He asked this, not as a condemnation, but as a revelation. He did not tell us this as “God”, but as a fellow man. Jesus, we are taught, is fully human as well as fully God. Therefore does it make sense that Jesus would ask more of His fellow man than what He knew we were capable of? In this Jesus places a challenge before us. That Challenge is to live as He lived and to love as he loves, even unto death. True Christianity demands no less. He demonstrated this in the most profound way by His acceptance of the Cross-, His loving forgiveness of His Tormentors and the ultimate Triumph in His Resurrection.
By His teaching, Jesus gave us no “Sola”, beyond that of Love in action. Yes we must believe; yes we must have faith; yes we must trust in Him, but just as importantly we must DO; we must Love; we must heal; we must persevere; we must sin no more; we must be humble; we must be honest and trustworthy etc. and then, in his loving goodness he told us that, if we failed, he would forgive us if we turn back to Him. From the Sermon on the Mount, to His command to make disciples of all nations, Jesus taught a fellowship of Love and Love in action; a call to Holiness and forgiveness.
Those who base their theology primarily on quotes from those who followed Jesus make a grave error for to do so subverts the lessons of Jesus. When one declares for instance a doctrine of Faith Alone and uses primarily quotations from Paul to support it, that person becomes then a disciple of Paul and not a disciple of Jesus. They become a Paulian instead of a Christian for they put greater stock in the preaching of a disciple of Christ than they do in Christ Himself.
Equally as dangerous is pulling verses from this or that place in the Bible and stringing them together to form some kind of whole. This method can, and has been, used to support the most outlandish ideas that fly in the face of Christ’s message of Love for us.
I ask all of us here to examine our beliefs in this light. Does our belief system jive with the totality of Christ’s message, or do we rely too much on other influences, or just on certain portions of the Total message. I pray that we do this that we may draw closer to our Lord and to each other in Truly Christian Love and Fellowship. That we may show everyone we come in contact with that calm, serene, confidence of the true Child of God and Brother of Christ.
Peace
James
