Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - JESUS +?

 JESUS + ?

With the possible exception of Luke, Paul was most likely the better educated of Christ’s early followers.  Being a Pharisee and educated under the leadership of Gamaliel, he was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable in the Jewish religion and ritual.  When he met Christ, however, on the road to Damascus, everything changed and from then on he preached only Christ and His crucifixion.  The first part of 1 Corinthians 1:23 - “…but we preach Christ crucified…” - became the theme of both the early apostles and the early church. 

This theme resonated with people. Paul and his associates, with great success, were planting churches everywhere they went.  In Ephesus, beginning with about a dozen believers in 53 AD, he went on to develop a megachurch of tens of thousands by about 55 AD.  Paul felt that preaching anything other than what was first preached brought deceptions into the message and resulted in diluting the true meaning of the gospel.  He felt this was, to a certain extent, the enemy’s doing and thus part of his overall message on falsehood.  As John put it "You are of your father the devil….When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it,” (John 8:44).

Paul felt that even in the early church false teachers had come into the body, spreading the deceptions of Satan in at least 4 ways.  Firstly, by adding subtle changes to the gospel.  This made it fit more readily into the culture/reason/science of the time; but by doing so “teachers” risked undermining the true divine inspiration of the Word.  Paul commented on this in Colossians 2:8: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”  The French philosopher Blaise Pascal put it this way - “The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.”*

Secondly, by relying too much on rituals rather than on Christ, even in the early church, Jewish ritual and custom began to creep back in and has continued to do so even in the church of today.  Paul addressed this problem in Colossians 2:11-16.  “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands…buried with Him in baptism…[and] having forgiven you all trespasses…So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

Thirdly, people were being mislead by those who claimed help from heavenly visions or visitors.  In the early church many false teachers claimed to be guided by angels or heavenly beings because God was too far away or busy to help directly.  They, therefore, needed mediators or items to connect them with Christ.  Apparently, a Roman amulet found near Colossae bore the following: “Michael, Gabriel, Ouriel, Raphael - protect the wearer.”  Do people not still do the same today?  Do they not turn to mediators instead of following the words of Timothy: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5)?

Fourthly, and finally, people are deceived by the concept of self-denial.  False teaching that stated one could become more godly by refusing to touch, taste, or handle certain things.  Asceticism may look wise on the exterior but this self-imposed worship has no power to change anyone.**  As Paul puts it, “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using—…These things indeed have an appearance wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh,” (Colossians 2:20-23).

If God’s gift to us was forgiveness through Christ’s death and resurrection, why do we continually try to dilute Christ’s sacrifice by attempting changes to the message?  Why do we utilize other messengers or rituals which detract from Christ ?  Why do we engage in a form of self-denial which then becomes a manner of self-worship? It’s all done in the church and done today and it’s really something we should think about.

*Blaise Pascal as recorded in Straight to the Heart of Galatians to Colossians by Phil Moore pg 184

**From Straight to the Heart of Galatians to Colossians by Phil Moore pg.186 and concept from same source pg.183-186