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WHAT A SAVIOR! #10
“I’M ACTING PRESIDENT NOW!”
Sometimes it’s called “overreaching.” Or “over-stepping yourself.” “Getting too big for your britches.” One of the classic stories here in the United States happened when President Ronald Reagan was shot, and his Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, infamously said to everyone listening: “I’m in charge here.” Well, check your Constitution, Al, because you aren’t either in charge, said all the reporters. Vice President Bush – at the time – was second in line in case the chief executive was incapacitated.
More recently, there was a commentary by Fox News Network’s Bill O’Reilly, where he took on some high-profile targets on both the left and the right for grabbing at a piece of pie that didn’t belong to them. A certain Judge Roy Moore, he opined, wasn’t willing to obey the laws of the land.
“He defied a federal court order,” O’Reilly wrote, “to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments he had placed in the courthouse where he worked as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. So his fellow justices fired him, as they should have.”
Then the controversial talk-show host swivelled his pundit’s chair around and aimed at ultra-progressive San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who angered many Americans in February of 2004 by authorizing City Hall to hand out marriage licenses to same-sex couples. California’s Proposition 22, voted by the people, enshrined in the law books, clearly stated that marriage in the Golden State was reserved for a man and a woman . . . and who was this 36-year-old mayor to take on authority not granted to him?
Well, friend, using those two illustrations might have the unintended effect of alienating our own radio audience today, and I really do want to have you studying God’s Word with us for these next eight or so minutes. But what is the spiritual lesson that transcends the skirmishes at City Hall? When a person usurps power that we believe should not be theirs, we rightly raise our hands. But could it be that a person might perform certain functions or services because they DO have that authority – and you and I simply don’t realize it yet?
We mentioned a kind of “Al Haig moment” yesterday – and we use that metaphor with all respect to a distinguished American who served his country sacrificially and faithfully for a long time. But in Mark chapter two, Jesus is teaching in a crowded house one day when suddenly the house is an open-air convertible! The roof is coming down! Actually, four men decided to invent the world’s first elevator, because here comes a paralytic man right down from the rafters. And what does the Teacher from Nazareth, the Man with a Bachelor’s Degree in carpentry, say to him? Five very presumptuous words:
“Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now, not just a sin where this man might have said something mean to Jesus or borrowed Jesus’ power saw without returning it. No, Jesus was forgiving ALL of this man’s sins, including a lot of sins where Jesus wasn’t anywhere in the picture. It would be like giving out a presidential pardon . . . except that you’re not the President. And immediately the Bill O’Reillys in the crowd thought in their hearts: “Wait a minute! Hold everything, Jesus. Since when were you elected deputy sheriff of the Forgiveness Department? Erasing sins is God’s territory, not yours.”
And did you know, friend, they were absolutely right? Jesus wasn’t just forgiving the way you and I forgive for the petty infractions we commit against one another around the water cooler. No, Jesus was forgiving cosmically. He was lifting sins right off the record books of heaven. He was granting salvation forgiveness, not courtesy forgiveness. And the teachers OF the law were correct in noticing that that would be AGAINST the law. If Jesus was simply a carpenter, just a teacher, just a guy with twelve dusty followers, then he had overreached himself. Because only God can forgive sins that way.
We’ve gotten some helpful theology – speaking of dust-covered – from an old printed-in-1957 book used in my Adventist denomination, entitled Questions on Doctrine. Some friendly fellow Christians wanted to know what my home church taught about the nature and position of Jesus Christ, and this was part of their answer. One of the huge reasons why we believe Jesus to be fully and completely and eternally God is this – in fact, let me quote directly from page 38:
“Ascription to Christ of OFFICES and PREROGATIVES Possessed and Exercised Only by Deity.”
In other words, Jesus wasn’t just being called “God” names by His followers (and referring to Himself in those same terms), but He was constantly DOING “God things.” No one blames a Vice President who APPROPRIATELY steps up to the plate following an assassination – we mentioned Lyndon Johnson and November 22, 1963 a couple of days ago. And the Bible tells routinely of Jesus doing things and assuming roles that – if He was NOT God – would be the most blatant and misguided heresy. Jesus would be hugely guilty of the sin of presumption . . . if He was NOT sent from heaven as He claimed.
For instance: we can read in John chapter one that:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.” Then a few verses later: “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
Now, what is that saying? “In the beginning,” Jesus Christ was with the Father . . . and what’s more, Jesus was the defining agent, the driving force, in the creation of the universe. If you read in Genesis 1, where we keep finding the expression, “Let there be . . . light, and oceans, and the sun, moon, and stars, and people” – that’s Jesus Christ talking. Jesus is the Creator of all that there is. Now, is creating universes God’s domain? Is that something for Deity and only Deity? You know the answer as well as I do. But Jesus and His followers claimed that office for Him.
Hebrews 1:3 has this to say about the Son of Mary and Joseph:
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, SUSTAINING ALL THINGS by His powerful word.”
I admit I don’t know much about astronomy, but I can tell you that Jeannie and I aren’t doing much to keep a billion galaxies in line and to keep the planets spinning in their orbits. But Jesus is accomplishing that right now even as we speak. You tell me: is that a “God thing,” or are you willing to apply for the job?
What else? We mentioned a judge from Alabama who might have overstepped the chain of command? Did you know that the Book of Acts describes Jesus as being the one who will “judge the world”? Is that a job for any mortal man you know, or would you rather have the King of kings and our gentle Savior do it?
This godly writing team in Questions on Doctrine proceeds to remind us that Jesus Christ, the Baby born in a straw-filled manger, went on to become a Raiser from the dead (John 5:28), a Lord who promises to transform our bodies (Philippians 3:21), and offers to bestow immortality on His friends and disciples (I Corinthians 15:52, 53).
In our closing moments, let me anticipate a substantial and valid objection. “Wait a minute,” you might say. “Jesus said He forgave this man’s sins, but who’s to know that anything REALLY happened in heaven’s galactic computer files?” You might recall how, in Schindler’s List, the despotic prison commandant went around saying to the terrified Jews: “I forgive you. Ah, yes, I forgive you” – for things that had nothing to do with him. He talked that way because he was a megalomaniacal fool. But if Jesus claims to forgive sins – which is kind of invisible – and to judge the world (invisible), that He created the world (invisible), that He preserves the world (invisible), that He can raise us up in the last day (hasn’t happened yet), that He can transform our bodies (not that we’ve noticed so far), on what basis do we decide that the Man from Galilee isn’t just one more interloper? A presumptuous fake?
Those are all good points. But everything goes back to this fundamental issue: what kind of a person talks this way? And makes these claims? Very few of Jesus’ secular critics today, even atheists or theological opponents, suggest that Jesus was a pathological liar. That He was psychotic, severely impaired, warped, functionally incapacitated by false dreams of grandeur. No. The evidence is clear that Jesus had vision, that He was a compelling teacher, that His words are a powerful, society-transforming guide to successful living. Would a person like that be likely to make these sweeping, grandiose claims – visible or invisible – if they were entirely untrue?
It doesn’t add up, does it? But let me again return to the wonderful reality that this all comes right down to our home address. Jesus claims to be our judge in the last days. Friend, for me that is hugely good news. I WANT it to be true! I don’t want my critics or my enemies – or frankly, even my friends – to determine my fate on Judgment Day. I’d rather have Jesus! I’d rather trust in Him for resurrection, for a glorified body, for immortality. I’d rather know that His divine, creative power will continue to make heaven a wonderful, delightful, never boring place to celebrate for the next ten thousand years, “bright shining as the sun.”
How about you?
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