Jesus Plus
Read Acts 13:38-43.
I have watched cell phones get smaller and smaller, from the ridiculously large bag phone (the ones we laugh at in old TV shows) all the way down to the "flip phone" that resembled a Star Trek (original series) communicator. Then, something surprising happened. They started getting bigger. And bigger. Almost to the point where some of them today look like you're putting a small tablet to your head to talk on the phone. Apple, in its iPhone 6 line, introduced two sizes for the first time in the iPhone history: the iPhone and the iPhone Plus. Plus meaning more. Plus meaning bigger. (And while I don't like the size, as my eyes get more...experienced...I can see the allure of the larger screen size.)
There's also a "plus" model in the church...it's called "Jesus Plus." You see it show up from time to time or in particular streams of tradition. It's the theology that basically says for salvation, you need "Jesus Plus" something. Jesus Plus a certain type of baptism. Jesus Plus another "experience of the Spirit." Jesus Plus good works, exceptional church attendance, particular doctrine...and so on. The list literally, I believe, is endless. Jesus Plus.
I don't know if such a theology shows up in other parts of the world, but it is certainly prevalent in our little corner. We Americans are taught from early on that we get what we earn and only that. "There's no such thing as a free lunch." If it's too good to be true, then it's probably not true. You only get what you earn, no more. We are a hard working people, determined to pay our own way, earn our own keep and ignore or dismiss any instance of grace. We don't understand grace. We don't think we deserve grace...and you know what—we don't! That's why it's called "grace." It's getting what we don't deserve.
Paul is preaching to people who had similar struggles. He's in Pisidian Antioch, during his first missionary journey, preaching in the synagogue. The Jews, for centuries, had tried and tried and tried to follow the Law to the letter. They wanted to please God. They wanted to do as God said. Moses had given them God's Law, and they had gone through cycle after cycle of following and failing, following and failing. Then Jesus came. He came to perfectly fulfill the Law and then to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. No longer do we have to fulfill the Law—Jesus has already done it for us. All we need to do is to ask him to be part of our lives, to include us in his saving work—something he is glad to do, since he has already invited us to be a part. We are given grace—unmerited favor. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. But we are freed from what Paul called the captivity of the Law.
In his sermon there in Pisidian Antioch, Paul puts it this way: "Through [Jesus] everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses" (13:39). You could not do it on your own, so Jesus did it for you. Why then do we try so hard to go back to a "Plus" plan? Is it because our eyes are bad and we can't see what Jesus did for us? Is it because we always feel like we have to earn what we get, and even that maybe we can do it better than Jesus did? Or is it because, really, we'd like to figure out salvation on our own? That didn't work out so well for the Israelites; how's it working for you?
Get rid of the Jesus Plus plan. It doesn't work. All that's necessary for us to receive salvation and see heaven is the Jesus plan. He is enough.
There's also a "plus" model in the church...it's called "Jesus Plus." You see it show up from time to time or in particular streams of tradition. It's the theology that basically says for salvation, you need "Jesus Plus" something. Jesus Plus a certain type of baptism. Jesus Plus another "experience of the Spirit." Jesus Plus good works, exceptional church attendance, particular doctrine...and so on. The list literally, I believe, is endless. Jesus Plus.
I don't know if such a theology shows up in other parts of the world, but it is certainly prevalent in our little corner. We Americans are taught from early on that we get what we earn and only that. "There's no such thing as a free lunch." If it's too good to be true, then it's probably not true. You only get what you earn, no more. We are a hard working people, determined to pay our own way, earn our own keep and ignore or dismiss any instance of grace. We don't understand grace. We don't think we deserve grace...and you know what—we don't! That's why it's called "grace." It's getting what we don't deserve.
Paul is preaching to people who had similar struggles. He's in Pisidian Antioch, during his first missionary journey, preaching in the synagogue. The Jews, for centuries, had tried and tried and tried to follow the Law to the letter. They wanted to please God. They wanted to do as God said. Moses had given them God's Law, and they had gone through cycle after cycle of following and failing, following and failing. Then Jesus came. He came to perfectly fulfill the Law and then to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. No longer do we have to fulfill the Law—Jesus has already done it for us. All we need to do is to ask him to be part of our lives, to include us in his saving work—something he is glad to do, since he has already invited us to be a part. We are given grace—unmerited favor. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. But we are freed from what Paul called the captivity of the Law.
In his sermon there in Pisidian Antioch, Paul puts it this way: "Through [Jesus] everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses" (13:39). You could not do it on your own, so Jesus did it for you. Why then do we try so hard to go back to a "Plus" plan? Is it because our eyes are bad and we can't see what Jesus did for us? Is it because we always feel like we have to earn what we get, and even that maybe we can do it better than Jesus did? Or is it because, really, we'd like to figure out salvation on our own? That didn't work out so well for the Israelites; how's it working for you?
Get rid of the Jesus Plus plan. It doesn't work. All that's necessary for us to receive salvation and see heaven is the Jesus plan. He is enough.
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