Calling All Christ-ians

We call ourselves "Christians". The intent is that we are identified as "followers of Christ". I don't think this is controversial or in question. That's the intent. We are to be "like Christ". The Bible says we are to "be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). I mean, it's not that hard to figure out.

The question then should become "What was Jesus about?" Why was He here? What did He do? What did He say? Important questions. And we should "go and do likewise."

So, for instance, if we argue that Jesus is not the only way to the Father, we do so against His words (John 14:6). You can claim to be a Christian while arguing that "all roads lead to heaven", so to speak, but it is not a Christian claim since Christ stated the opposite. We need to see what Jesus said and agree in order to be "acting like a Christian". If you claim that it is wrong for us to call people to repentance, you do so against Jesus's own words (Luke 5:32), and that cannot be considered "Christ-ian".

Jesus tells us what He was about. It isn't a guess. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). See? Not that hard. There are actually quite a few of these. He came to fulfill the Law (Matt 5:17), to bring a sword rather than peace (Matt 10:34) (think about that one for a moment), to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).

Of course, while we can certainly (and are commanded to certainly) share the Gospel, we can't actually save the lost. So, what else can't we do that Jesus came to do? Well, we can't fulfill the Law. (That's the point of Him coming, isn't it?) He came to die on the cross for our sins, and while we can die, even on a cross, we can't die for sins. It would appear, then, that Jesus was tasked with doing things that we cannot. But we can indeed call sinners to repentance (even if it's unpopular today) and bear witness to the truth.

One of the popular concerns today comes from a text from the lips of our Savior Himself. The concern is that we're missing this primary purpose for which Jesus came. Returning from the temptation in the desert, Jesus went to the synagogue and read from Isaiah.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19).

The message then? The purpose of Christ that too many of us are missing? Why, we need to take care of the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. We need to be deeply involved in "social justice" because if we are to call ourselves "Christians", we need to follow what Jesus said we are to do. Indeed, those who see it this way would argue that this is the primary purpose of Christians.

There is a problem with this particular claim. The first hint of a problem is that Jesus didn't do it. There is no reference in any of the Gospels that suggested that Jesus ever set captives free. That's a problem, if that's what He was here to do. So let's look at what He actually said. Notice a repeated term: "proclaim". Hmm. Jesus said that He was anointed by God to proclaim things. He proclaimed good news (to the poor), liberty (to the captives), and "the year of the Lord's favor." Indeed, in that list from Isaiah, there isn't really much that He does as much as says. (Interestingly, in the book of Acts there doesn't seem to be much of the "social justice" concept practiced by the first Christians at all. Did they miss these plain instructions? Or do these instructions mean something other than a command for us to be mainly involved in social justice?)

Beyond the fact that Jesus didn't actually do what this implies He was going to do, and beyond the fact that He primarily spoke of proclaiming rather than performing social justice, it cannot be ignored that the people of which He spoke were not necessarily simply "not well off" (poor), in prison (captives), unable to visually detect things (blind), or enduring physical hardships (oppressed). The Bible is full of references to the spiritually poor, the spiritually captive, the spiritually blind, and the spiritually oppressed. And yet, for some reason, this reference must be taken only in the most literal (and, as such, inconsistent) sense.

We call ourselves "Christians". We are indeed supposed to be followers of Christ. What did Christ come to do? We can't actually do all He came to do. But He says He came to "proclaim". Proclaim what? Good news to people who are in a bad way. Calling all Christians, then. On the authority of Christ Himself, go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey. That is a Christ-ian thing to do. And, like Christ, if helping folks along the way assists you in doing that, then do it. It is the Christ-ian thing to do.