I was always fascinated growing up in a Christian church that very few people actually talked about Jesus (the Christ). As I heard pastors, ministers, teachers, preachers, missionaries, and priests talk about their faith, it seemed that the majority of the conversation revolved around a sort of code of social and personal conduct. If you know a place (or a person) by what they spend the most time, effort, energy, and resources on (our priorities will direct us to those things naturally, causing us to talk about them the most or spend the most time on them), then we know what a church’s focus is by what they talk about the most.

And what I find among Christians (this may seem like a sweeping generalization, and I don’t mean it to be that way as there are definitely some notable exceptions) today in America is that they seem to spend a lot of time talking about three things:

1. Paul and His Epistles (or Letters)
2. The Book of Revelation and Other Prophecies
3. The Old Testament, particularly the Old Law in Leviticus and other books

What they don’t seem to spend as much time on is, well, Jesus Christ. For Christians, Jesus is literally God. And yet, they seem to find more comfort in the other three things I mentioned above.

But I wonder what Christianity would look like, and what Christians would act like, if they didn’t have anything except the gospels and the words and actions of Jesus. No Paul. No Epistles. No Revelation. No Prophecies. No Old Testament. Just Jesus.

I was excited to see Andrew Farley’s new book, The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church, which he bills as “Jesus plus nothing.” I read it with the fervor of an excited school boy getting his first “real book” to read. But I was so very disappointed. Page after page after page… No Jesus. A whole lot of Epistles and even more Paul. But no Jesus. In fact, at one point, in about three sentences, Andrew completely sweeps Jesus out of the picture. He explains that the entire point of Jesus is not his life, but his death. The Cross. And that “Jesus plus nothing” actually starts with the Apostles at Pentecost. And we’re left with Paul to explain it all.

The Christian Argument

Um. What?! How is that Jesus plus nothing? So, it’s kind of like making this argument, which is exactly what most Christians do. And it’s one that I think we should all reconsider.

God is perfect. Jesus is God. Jesus was physically on earth, lived, died, and rose from the dead. We receive salvation from God as a result of Jesus. Jesus, as God, is perfect. And Paul, Revelation, the Old Testament, and every other book in the Bible, written by imperfect human beings who were inspired by God are the ways in which we understand Jesus. In other words, Jesus, even though completely perfect because He IS God, apparently is not enough. Jesus’ perfection only goes so far. Which is why we have to rely on Paul to explain it all to us.

For example, Jesus explains that we have only one law: “Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Yet, Christians think that Jesus’ version of the law is imperfect and so we must continue to look to other laws. Jesus says “You will not know the day nor the hour” of the end of the world and so we should live our lives as though everyday were the last day. And yet, Christians spend an inordinate amount of time trying to determine exactly when the last day will be, and Revelation seems to be the answer. Except, wasn’t Jesus’ answer perfect? If so, why go looking for more answers. That’s like saying, “yes, you’ve given me the perfect answer, but it doesn’t suit my needs so I’ll go find another one.”

That seems to be more and more what Christianity is becoming these days: the constant search for a different answer than the one Jesus gave us. And yet, Jesus’ answers are perfect. They are perfect for everyone. They provide a clear path to understanding our relationship with God and with each other. They need no other explanation or enhancement. And Christians can finally put Christ back into Christianity. ##

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