Title: Jesus is not a role model.
Jesus is not a role model.
“Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter said to him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15,16).
The Washington Post newspaper has a person archive that collects data of all famous people, including politicians, scholars, movie stars, and athletes, and I read in an article that Jesus was classified as a martyr. Each person's view of Jesus can be very different.
After all believers have been saved, the goal of a new life on this earth is to become more like Jesus. If so, it means that the appearance of each believer's life of faith can be different depending on how they evaluate Jesus. So what happens? If you make a wrong evaluation, it means that there is a good chance that you will fall into the wrong path of faith.
However, this does not mean that unless you are a believer who is immersed in a cult, you will fall into the absurd Samcheonpo. On the other hand, there is always the danger of limiting Jesus to a role model (R/M or R/M), which Americans love.
An R/M is always someone who has reached the top position in a particular field. So, to have someone as your R/M means that you also want to rise to such a position in the field and make an effort. For example, the basketball player chooses Michael Jordan, the venture capitalist Bill Gates, and the political aspirant Bill Clinton his R/M, and he tries to follow him in every way.
However, having Jesus as your R/M is a completely different dimension. Liberal theologians evaluate Jesus' identity primarily by emphasizing certain specific areas of him. Moral teachers (rabbis), hermits (Essenes) who demonstrated a holy life, radical progressive reformers (zealots), social workers who worked for relief and charity, martyrs who were victims of political conspiracies (like the Washington Post newspaper).
Therefore, based on this kind of evaluation, it is easy for the Christian life to resemble Him to lean toward one side. The best example is that, like Schweitzer and Mother Teresa, they judge Jesus only as a savior of the poor and marginalized, so that they spend their whole lives doing just that.
This is very wrong, and service is like touching an elephant. By touching the nose and mistaken for a long pipe, the ears for a large fan, and the legs for a pole, they are just making a model of an elephant. Putting it all together, you get a complete model of the elephant. Likewise, Jesus must cover all assessments of liberal theologians. That doesn't mean he's a Super Man, though.
If a person is evaluated by one person, it cannot be evaluated more than R/M outstanding in a specific field anyway. This is because, in order to compare and compare with yourself or other excellent people, certain specific criteria must be mobilized. When a believer evaluates Jesus, he or she will evaluate the holiness life, obedience life, prayer life, evangelism life, and giving life. So, I draw a specific image as R/M by extracting and emphasizing only the parts I want to resemble in each field.
But is it really okay for Jesus to be evaluated that way? How did Peter evaluate Jesus' identity now? Wasn't he the Son of God, that is, God? Furthermore, he called me lord (My lord). He is in control of all my life, my life and death. But can we really use such a person as our R/M in our lives? It can never be. There is nothing we dare to do other than give all of us to him.
Based on the coming of Jesus to this earth, history has been divided into two. No one has had such an impact on the lives of all mankind as he did, and never will be. He did not simply set an example in a particular field, but fundamentally changed countless human beings. Depending on how an individual evaluates him, his life is also divided into two based on him, and he is most affected by his entire life's journey, and his very existence changes.
In other words, he is the one who completely transforms each of us into what we should be most human, not the one who specializes in a particular field. Think about it. Jesus came to this earth to die on the cross. You risked your everything, your existence, your life and even your life for us. To turn all of us into yours. If he only wanted us to stand as R/M in a specific field, there was absolutely no reason to do so.
The most fundamental aspect that He wanted to change us was a person who could freely call God Abba Father anytime, anywhere, not a philanthropist, social reformer, or moral teacher. This is how God used all of your wisdom to make it very beautiful and then walked with you. So, whatever we do, He wants us to be transformed into beings who are not ashamed or afraid in front of Him and the world.
In short, it is to confess that Jesus is the Son of God and his Lord, not only with his lips, but with all that he has, so that he can live that way. Indeed, from this earth, no matter how bruised reeds or burning lamps, “wreaths replace ashes, oil of joy replaces sorrow, and garments of praise replace sorrow” (Isaiah 61:3). is. In Jesus, you can be grateful and rejoice in all areas of your life, and you will be victorious enough to be able to stand up to sin, Satan, and death with dignity. He is indeed the Lord, not our R/M.
Yet, sometimes even among believers, rather than following Jesus, Schweitzer or Teresa are their R/Ms, and they are teaching them to do the same at the pulpit, which is a big deal. We cannot underestimate their achievements during their lifetime, but we cannot underestimate their faith itself. Wasn't Schweitzer actually a liberal theologian who believed in a human Jesus, and Teresa was a Catholic?
Of course, a person whose life has been completely changed in Jesus can use his gifts and talents to become an expert in a specific field in order to realize the calling he has received from God. Also, in that field, we can take as an example the “attitude and appearance” of Jesus during his public life. But you can never be “the R/M of the believer.”
Jesus is not a saint, a moral teacher, a social reformer, or a martyr. Only the Son of God. The only thing a believer should strive to be, or make his R/M, like him is love and sacrifice for sinners who died on the cross. No matter how much you try to resemble Him without the cross, all of them are mere human merit and personal righteousness.
What is the title given to Schweitzer or Mother Teresa? Isn't he a saint? Can humans really have such a title? The only title that can be given to a human being, regardless of what great deeds he has left on earth, is only one of two things: the forgiven sinner in Jesus or the unforgiven sinner outside of Jesus. How do you rate Jesus now? And where do you set your lifelong goals? Are you happy to end your life only as a sinner forgiven in Jesus? Are you not trying to become a saint by any chance?
8/22/2006