Jesus Is ______: Find a New Way to Be Human

by Judah Smith

If we understand that we have issues, if we recognize that we have stuff we cannot conquer...

Jesus said he came to show us the Father. In other words, he modeled God for us. His words, actions, perspectives, and priorities were identical to God’s.

“Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.”

Funny how age has a way of mellowing arrogance.

sordid

jeering

don

We condemn people to life sentences without parole, while God in heaven is saying, “Wait! I love that man. There is hope for that woman. They can be saved.”

pendulum

Stage 1. I am a good person, and I am justified in criticizing bad people. Stage 2. I am a good person, but I should show compassion to bad people. Stage 3. I am a sinner who needs just as much help as the next guy. Stage 4. I am loved by Jesus, just as I am, and so is everyone else.

We think that if Jesus had only one shot at fixing us, he’d make it count by pointing out where we were blowing it the worst.

aloof,

If sinners aren’t welcome at my church, then I better find a new church—because I’m a sinner too. And I’m the worst of all, since I know better.

God transforms us one area at a time.

And we can’t take the credit for the transformation, because we just fell in love with Jesus. God did the hard part.

He wasn’t interested in condemning her past. He wanted to rescue her future.

Who starts out with the goal of being a prostitute or a porn star or a pervert? But difficult situations and wrong choices conspire to trap us in hopelessness.

indignant

Jesus let them belong long before they believed or behaved.

I am learning to listen more, to ask better questions, to laugh more readily, and to offer less advice.

I realize it’s not my job to convince people they are wrong and I am right. It’s not my job to change them.

When I see myself as a friend rather than a judge or schoolmaster, the relationship is a lot more natural.

But when sin becomes more important than the sinner, an alarm needs to go off in our heads.

We can’t fake love just to get someone to come to church. That’s manipulation and hypocrisy, and sooner or later it will backfire.

Like Jesus, we need to be interruptible.

He showed unconditional love and acceptance.

Love is risky. We might be rejected. We might be crucified by the people we are trying to help. But u...

or try to fix them or try to save them (as

At least the serial

sinner realizes, I’m jacked up! I need help.

obstinate

Grace is the foundation of Christianity

and the essence of salvation.

Webster’s top definition, however, comes closest to the biblical meaning of grace: “Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.”

Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (NKJV).

Who is this Jesus? How can he speak of such love? The Pharisees and the priests say that you get what you deserve. That you’ve got to do everything right. That you’ve got to pray and read the Bible. You have to know all the jargon and be perfect. But this man is speaking of a kind of love I’ve never heard of before.

Could it be? Could his folly be forgotten just because the father said so? Could there really be a future for him, even after all he had done? It seemed too good to be true.

That’s grace.

Grace Abused That’s what a lot of us end up doing with grace. We don’t know what grace is or what to do with it, so we leave it on a shelf most of the time. Then we bring it out when we need to get ourselves out of trouble.

People who flaunt their sin in the name of grace don’t know what grace is. They don’t know what to do with the gift they’ve been given, so they make it into something it isn’t: a get-out-of-jail-free card, a cover-up, a rug to sweep the nasty stuff under. That’s not where grace belongs. That’s like putting your bicycle in bed next to you. It doesn’t fit there.

unfettered

dogma,

That means that grace and truth aren’t enemies.

When we realize that grace is a person, not a principle, abusing grace is no longer an option.

It’s easy to abuse a principle, to manipulate a system, or to excuse away a doctrine.

They haven’t met grace—they’ve met a concept.

The point is this: some of us put too much trust in rules.

Rules are not bad, but they can’t save anyone. The best a rule or a law can do is set a boundary and threaten punishment for crossing that boundary. People still decide whether to obey the rule or not.

I’ve watched parents make rules out of fear. They try to use rules to guarantee their kids will stay on the straight and narrow. That doesn’t work. That’s not what rules are for. Rules are meant to lead us to relationship, not to replace relationship.

Let me throw out a word of caution. Focusing too much on rules and too little on grace tells children that what they do is more important than who they are.