At Face Value

I write primarily to believers, fellow Christians, knowing that unbelievers have a different starting place. We have God's Word; they have ... whatever else they want to have. We, Christians, share (or, at least, ought to share) a passion to follow Christ. Isn't that, after all, the primary idea behind the word, "Christ-ian"? Since that is true, I wonder why we Christ-ians seem to have trouble sometimes taking Christ at His word. I'm not talking about unbelievers. I understand that. What about Christians?

Take, for instance, Jesus's "Many are called; few are chosen" (Matt 22:14). "No, no," we're prone to say, "It's not that few are chosen. It's that they chose not to be." Jesus said, "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day" (John 6:39). So why is it that not a few Christians believe that Jesus can lose some of those God gave Him? Jesus gave two "no one can" statements in one chapter in John.

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44)

"For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." (John 6:65)

What do we have here? Twice He said "No one can come to Me." Stop there. According to Jesus, leaving off the next "unless" phrase, how many people can come to Him? Who has that innate capacity? Jesus said, "No one." Then He gives two "unless" statements. In the first it was "unless the Father draws him." In the second it was "unless it has been granted him from the Father." In both cases, the Father must act to overcome this "no one can" condition. If God doesn't act, "no one can." So there are two "unless" statements, two things by which God overcomes our natural inability. One is to draw, and the other is to grant. We need to receive the gift (grant) of coming to Him and we need to be moved (drawn). It doesn't happen on our own. "Oh, no," Christians are quick to say, "that's not what it means at all." But that's what He said. In fact, in the second one, the question He was answering ("For this reason ...") was "There are some of you who do not believe" (John 6:64). Why didn't they believe? They weren't granted. That's what Jesus said. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). That's not a little something.

We are not like the pagans who operate on their own deceitful hearts. We're Christians, aiming at following Christ ... nay, being in Christ's likeness. If we don't take Him at His word -- if we don't take Him at face value -- how can we expect to be an accurate reflection of Him? If we like the nice things He said and discard the difficult, how can we expect to be actual Christ-followers? He had a lot of nice things to say, but He also had some really hard things, like "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt 7:14) and "I never knew you; depart from Me" (Matt 7:23). Just to mention two. Jesus spoke more of hell than anyone else. He required His followers to deny themselves and take up their cross (Matt 16:24). It's not all fun and games. So what will we do? Will we take the difficult with the good? Will we believe Him in all that He says? Or will we pick and choose -- mediate His words to match our wishes? In the latter case, we cannot expect to be faithful representatives if we fail to rightly represent Him.