Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

by Keith Giles

Jesus clearly hadn’t come to give people the “right” answer to their many questions surrounding secular politics. His mission didn’t include providing people with a new-and-improved version of the kingdoms of this world, even though he certainly had the opportunity to do so! People wanted to enthrone him as their worldly king, but Jesus ran away from them when they tried (John 6:15). And although the devil offered him all the “authority” and “splendor” of “all the kingdoms of the world,” Jesus wisely declined the offer (Luke 4:5-7).

If Jesus viewed the desire to acquire political power to be a temptation of the devil, why do so many American Christians fight to acquire as much of this political power as they can?

As Keith Giles argues in this clear, insightful, and very readable book, the sad truth is that this quest for political power is the result of the American church allowing Herself to be coopted by political power.

We forgot that Christians are called to follow the way of the cross, not the way of political power in which people fight to impose their (assumed) morally and intellectually superior convictions on others.

We are to impact society not by voicing our opinions about what government should do, but by demonstrating what we as a church are willing to do as we sacrifice our time, money, talent and privileges to help all who are hungry, homeless, oppressed, lost, judged and suffering from discrimination.

“Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met and to take pride in accomplishments you have no part in.” – DOUG STANHOPE

What I hope to do in this book is to convince you that being an American and following Jesus are not the same thing.

The fact is that someone who hears the Gospel of Jesus and who sincerely responds to His call does not automatically become a conservative American with a particular set of political values.

Consider, also, that most of those who follow Christ in this world are not living in America.

We would probably be very disturbed to meet a Christian brother or sister who was passionately devoted to North Korea and fiercely prideful about their nationalism. At least, I would hope so. Yet, some of us see nothing wrong with mixing our Christian faith with our American nationalism. In fact, some not only see that as “normal,” they can hardly imagine what it would be like to follow Jesus without embracing the flag, revering the Constitution, and weeping as the band plays the Star-Spangled Banner.

For many Christians, this is a very large blind spot. We have been so inundated with the ideas of God and country that we can barely imagine one without the other.

Nationalism denies the transcendent nature of God’s Kingdom. It ignores the fact that there is one universal Body of Christ that includes those from every tongue, tribe, and nation. It twists us into tools of the State and drowns out the voice of Jesus that seeks to remind us that everyone we meet is our neighbor, made in the image of God, and is therefore worthy of love, grace, and mercy.

Of course, every Christian hopes to make an impact on the world around them. This is part of why we are so eager to serve our Lord Jesus—because He has the best possible plan for changing the world from within, without oppression or violence. No, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make the world a better place. The problem is in seeking to do so without Jesus— or, worse, to mix Christianity with politics, as if one had need of the other.

Politics is not about Jesus. Simply put, it’s about power and influence.

As followers of Jesus, we are His representatives—specifically, his ambassadors—to the world around us. This speaks to the reality of Christ’s Kingdom being separate from the kingdoms of this world, and of the need to bridge the gap between the two. That’s our job.

What should people see when they look at us? They should see how we love one another. They should see how we love our neighbors. They should see how we love even our enemies. They should see how we—in obedience to our King—handle conflict: by loving, forgiving, blessing, and serving those who come against us. They should see how we value the outcasts, love the poor, and how we care for those people that everyone else wants to ignore or marginalize.

The Kingdom of God and the American empire are not congruent. They are not complimentary. They are opposing forces with radically different goals, values and ideals.

The way I view Scripture is very Jesus-centric. That means I view all of Scripture through the lens of Jesus. To me, Jesus, the Head of the Church, is the ultimate and final authority on God’s Word.

But this is not the view of the majority of Christians today. Instead, most evangelicals tend to adopt a “Flat Bible” approach which views the Old Covenant Scriptures and the New Covenant Scriptures on equal terms.

They usually do not accept the idea that a Christian can actually put the commands of Jesus into practice. They often over-emphasize man’s sinful nature and view man as being utterly helpless when it comes to things like loving their enemies, turning the other cheek, and blessing those who curse you.

“Flat Bible” Christians tend to emphasize grace and forgiveness while “Jesus-centric” Christians most often emphasize submission to Christ and daily obedience to Him.

Historically, these sorts of Christians were called “Anabaptists” in the 16th century, for example. They were devoted to a radical reformation that exceeded that of Martin Luther and John Calvin and sought to return the Christian faith to a time where Jesus alone was the final authority and allegiance to Christ was paramount.

What disagreements there may be between the two viewpoints are rooted more in the realm of which scriptures are held as authoritative and which are not. For “Jesus-centric” Christians everything is filtered through the lens of Christ as He is the “Word made flesh.”

Those who take a “Flat Bible” approach tend to have a faith that most closely resembles the Jewish faith. For example, other than the Old Covenant ceremonial and dietary laws, many “Flat Bible” Christians still believe in following the Old Testament scriptures. This means that, for many of them, accumulating wealth, participating in war, and divorce are acceptable behaviors for Christians, simply because they are allowed in the Old Covenant scriptures.

For those who are “Jesus-centric,” the teachings of Jesus on these matters—accumulating wealth, participating in war, divorce and remarriage—are the only standard they follow.

Finally, those who take a “Jesus-centric” approach believe the words of Jesus can actually be followed, and are meant to be obeyed, not merely quoted, memorized or preached.

Historically, Christians who practiced this “Jesus-centric” approach to Scripture (like the Anabaptists) suffered great persecution. They were tortured, imprisoned, and put to death by Christians who embraced the Flat Bible perspective.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why Evangelicals today can justify support for torture, war, violence, militarism, and nationalism it is simply because they can appeal to Moses and the Old Covenant scriptures as examples of why these are acceptable.

At the Mount of Transfiguration there is an astounding lesson for us—one that most Christians completely miss, I’m afraid.

In that moment, Peter mistakenly attempts to honor all of them together by suggesting that they build three altars: one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus. What happens next is the lesson we need to learn. The Father responds to Peter’s attempt to honor Jesus by removing Moses and Elijah completely. Then the Father speaks from the cloud and says, “This is my Son. Listen to Him!”

But in his attempt to elevate Jesus, he was actually demoting the Son of God. That’s what he didn’t realize, and it is what Christians today don’t realize they are doing when they hold the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) on the same level as Jesus (God in the flesh).

The pictures of God we have before Christ are wonderful, but they are not in complete focus. Jesus brings those into focus for us like no one else. The prophets of the Old Covenant gave us a wonderful portrait of God, but Jesus is the flesh–andblood reality.

So, what does all this mean? It means that we, as followers of Jesus, need to interpret the Old Covenant (Ten Commandments, Mosaic Laws, etc) through the lens of Christ, not the other way around.

In other words, we should never take the words of Jesus and filter them through the Old Covenant scriptures. Jesus is the One to whom we are to listen. Jesus outranks Moses. The Sermon on the Mount supplants the Law.

So, first Jesus assures us that His mission is to fulfill or to accomplish the Law, and then He tells us that the Law will not disappear “until everything is accomplished.” The question is: “Was everything accomplished?” And the answer is: Yes! “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). The Greek word Jesus used here for “finished” is literally the word “accomplished.” Jesus affirmed to us that he really did accomplish everything he set out to do when he prayed to the Father and said, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4).

Maybe this is why the Apostle Paul told us that, on the cross, Jesus actually did “abolish the Law” by fulfilling (or “accomplishing”) it:

So, the true “Israel of God” is actually found in Galatians where Paul assures us that, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).

Who, then, are God’s “chosen” people? Consider what the Apostle Peter says about the Christians he writes to in his first epistle: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Let’s go back and look at what the Jewish people were “chosen” for in the first place. Were they chosen to be saved? No, because salvation depends upon trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. What we find is that God chose the Jews to “be a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 49:6), to exemplify their covenant with God, and, especially to be the people group from whom the Messiah would be born.

Some “Flat Bible” Christians might claim that the Ten Commandments are still relevant for us today. But according to the very same Bible, this is not the case.

Also, the Ten Commandments were a covenant between God and the nation of Israel, not between God and the entire world:

Without this covenant, the Jewish people had no basis for being called a nation.5

In much the same way that the Constitution is a document that outlines the laws of our nation and establishes our system of government, the Ten Commandments (or the Law) outlines God’s terms for establishing the nation state of Israel.

That’s a conditional covenant. We know that the history of Israel records their continual disobedience to God and to His covenant. Because they broke their covenant with God, they were scattered over and over again, until finally the nation of Israel was judged in AD 70 during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans—as Jesus predicted it would be in Luke 21, and in the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46).

If you are in Christ—who is the “Chosen One” of God—then you may partake in the same promises that have been attributed to Christ. Some Christians mistakenly apply the promises to ethnic Israel, rather than to Christ Himself. This error is fairly recent, having been largely popularized by John Nelson Darby in the 1830s. In America this doctrine (known as Dispensationalism) has become the dominant theology for most mainstream Christian denominations.6

Paul affirmed in Romans 13 that the State served a purpose (to wield the sword and maintain civil authority), but that the Church served a higher purpose: to carry the cross and proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom.

There was never any question for Paul, or for the early Christian church, that these two functions were divided between the two groups. The Church and the State were separate entities with different goals and radically different ideals.

They, like the Anabaptists who came after them during the Reformation, took all of their cues from Jesus.

Because of this, they saw their faith as something that was actively bringing Christ’s Kingdom into this world with each and every demonstration of His rule and reign in their own lives.

Many of us today might say that we also embrace a similar two-kingdom approach. However, if we are honest, we must admit that what we actually mean is that we take a particular stance on gay marriage or abortion, or that we vote a certain way. This is generally where most of our convictions along these lines end.