The Jesus Driven Life Quotes

“Life is not about hoarding wealth but about spreading it around. God can act to see to it that the creation is nourished, but he uses us humans to see to it that our fellow humans have their needs met. We live in a world where the poor are daily reminders that we too have an obligation to meet, not only to ourselves but also to one another. In order to do this we, like Jesus, need to eschew three things: comfort, safety and security.”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus

“There is a way of living life, a mode of being religious that causes destruction wherever it appears. It is the misinterpretation of the concept of holiness. It was certainly an issue in Jesus’ day. The variety of the ‘Judaisms’ of Jesus’ day, the various schools or parties, the rabbinic schools of Hillel and Shammai . . . the Essenes . . . apocalyptic sects, mainstream elite like the Sadducees and marginalized Samaritans alike all held to some kind of holiness code, that behavior which made the people right before God.

The Temple itself reflected gradations or strata of holiness, from the outer Court of the Gentiles to the Holy of Holies. This meta-map of the Temple was overlaid on Jewish society as well. Just as there were degrees of holy space in the Temple, so also in society various persons had various degrees of holiness . . . It was a hierarchical model, lived out by every group or party except one, that of Jesus.

Yet, oddly enough we do not find this holiness language in Jesus’ teaching. Unlike the constant refrain of holiness in the Dead Sea Scrolls or the later Mishnah, Jesus has another set of lyrics using the same melody. Instead of “Be holy as I am holy” Jesus taught “Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Mercy was for Jesus what holiness was to many of his contemporaries. Notice the same form is used but the substance has changed. Why is this? Because for Jesus, holiness was not a solution but a problem. Holiness caused ostracizing and exclusion; mercy brought reconciliation and re-socialization. Holiness depended on gradation and hierarchy; mercy broke through all barriers. Holiness differentiated persons based upon honor, wealth, family tree, religious affiliation; mercy recognized that God honors all, loves all and blesses all.”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity with Jesus

“Persons are encouraged to tell a personal salvation story when they attend church. No longer does the salvation wrought by God in Jesus have corporate dimensions, no longer is it the salvation of the world. The way we tell the story of salvation is frankly narcissistic.”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus

“Yes, it was our sin that killed Jesus. Not as some transaction where God takes our sin and somehow transfers it onto Jesus; but as the actual rejection of his life and message.”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus

“134 Anytime someone justifies their hatred or anger, resentment or bitterness, anytime anyone blames the other or accuses the other of breaking social laws and then makes God out to agree, entirely misses what is going on in the Bible. They miss what is called gospel, good news, news that brings gladness and joy. It is to have a theology (a doctrine of God) without a christology (a doctrine of Jesus).”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus

“Anytime someone justifies their hatred or anger, resentment or bitterness, anytime anyone blames the other or accuses the other of breaking social laws and then makes God out to agree, entirely misses what is going on in the Bible. They miss what is called gospel, good news, news that brings gladness and joy. It is to have a theology (a doctrine of God) without a christology (a doctrine of Jesus).”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus

“We live out in our everyday relationships what we believe about God. That is, there is a direct connection between what one believes and how one lives.”
― Michael Hardin, The Jesus Driven Life: Reconnecting Humanity With Jesus