Making Much of Jesus

John 3:30- “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

            At its core Christianity is about Jesus. Jesus created everything (John 1:3). Jesus holds everything together (Col. 1:17). Jesus lived the perfect life that we could never live (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus did what it took to save us (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Jesus has made the way for people to be adopted as God’s children (Eph. 1:3-5).  On and on we could go talking about how Christianity necessarily makes much of Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Today I have been thinking about how the gospel makes much of Jesus, while religion makes much of me.

            Let’s start with religion (Please note I am using the word “religion” as it is commonly used today. i.e. Pharisaical religion). Religion makes much of me. To be a religious person you necessarily have to think about yourself… a lot.  I used to wake up thinking about how I could improve my behavior. I would think about how many chapters of the Bible I would need to read. Then after I read I would fear I did not read enough. My prayers focused primarily on my own spiritual pursuits and not much else. I would try to do things for God, but really they were to make me feel better about myself. It was an exhausting way to live. Everything revolved around me.

 Religion is like a ladder. The more “stuff” you do, the closer you feel to God. One rung at a time we climb ever closer to God. The problem is, much like the tower of Babel, this sort of pursuit of God only leads to failure and ultimately sin. No amount of good deeds can fills the gap between our sin and God’s holiness. This path only leads to the rollercoaster of self-righteousness and despair. If self-righteous-despair is the rollercoaster then religion is the track it runs on. Religion robs us of God’s love and acceptance as found in Christ and replaces it with condemnation and guilt (See Romans 8). It robs Jesus of our love and affections and makes us slaves instead of sons.  It is a perversion of the truth. It is a different gospel altogether (Gal. 1:6).

The “tree of religion” only bears two types of fruit. The first is a shinny, delicious looking fruit. It is beautiful and seems to glisten in the sun. However, you know from the first bite that it is rotten to the core (See Matthew 23). Let’s call this fruit self-righteousness. You see when you keep all of the “big” rules you begin to feel good about yourself. I did this for years. I gloried in what I did for God. I would become proud and judgmental. As long I was keeping the rules then I had a free pass to be a policeman. At the end of the day I was proud…. Proud of me.  However, the “tree of religion” bears another type of fruit. This fruit is disgusting both inside and out. It is the fruit of despair. This fruit is a fruit of opportunity. It will only grow under the right circumstances. It seems to always develop when self-righteousness is exposed. It comes from self-condemnation and the judgment of others. For example, when I would miss reading my Bible or when I would do something “really” sinful I would expose my own self-righteousness and as a result I would fall into despair. Or when someone else would expose my hypocrisy or would, even unknowingly, bring to light a hidden sin in my life I would completely fall apart. I would doubt God’s love for me and would commit to try harder. This obviously lead right back into self-righteousness. It is easy to see how religion made much of me… It should also be easy to see how religion makes much of all of us.

The gospel makes much of Jesus. There are no ladders or towers to climb in the gospel. The gospel makes it perfectly clear that Jesus alone can fill the gap between God and us. The gospel humbles us because it shows us that only Jesus can mediate between God and men. However, at the same time the gospel lifts us up and seats us before God. The gospel gives us access to God. This means that the gospel skips the rungs on the ladder and plants us right where we have always strived to be. It plants us in God’s presence. That is liberating! In this way the gospel kills self-righteousness and despair and at the same time makes much of Jesus. It is no longer about what we can do, but about what Christ has done (Farewell self-righteousness).  Also, it plants us firmly in the middle of God’s love and acceptance (Goodbye despair). The gospel brings freedom. It brings us the freedom to exalt Jesus. It is no longer about us. It is about Him. He becomes the hero of both this life and the life to come. We can now glory in who He is and not in who who we are. When we am tempted to fall back into self-righteousness the gospel reminds us that any goodness in us is a direct result of our Savior, not as a result of our own strengths or abilities. Conversely, when we fail and am tempted to fall into despair the gospel reminds us that Christ is our substitute. He lived the perfect life that we could never live. This causes our hearts to do two things. 1). It gives us the freedom to approach God’s throne and honestly confess our sins and to repent. (Religion tells us that confession= condemnation. The gospel tells us that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus- Rom 8). We don’t have to hide behind vague generalization about sin (“God please forgive all the sins I committed today.”) Instead, we can honestly go before God with our sin. For example, we can go before God and say

“Father I am reminded again of my need for you. I just lost my tempter with my Dad. I let my anger get the best of me. Father you know that I am hopeless without you. If it were not for Jesus Christ there is no way that I could come before you and confess my shortcomings to you. I know that even this one sin is enough to separate me from you forever. But because of what your Son did for me I know that I stand as a free son and not a condemned slave. I know that you love and accept me based on what He did and not on what I could ever do. Father my sin disgust me, but your grace gives me unspeakable joy. Thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you that He is the substitute for my sinfulness. I need you more than I have ever needed anything. I love you.”

This example helps us to see that the gospel makes much of Jesus. The gospel does a second thing to our hearts. 2). It allows our hearts to enjoy God. Religion makes us think that we need to work really hard and if we work hard enough we can get to the point where we enjoy God. The gospel shows us that we can enjoy God here and now based upon what Christ has done. We now have access to the God of the universe. And let me tell you He is a great God! We begin to love being in His presence. We were created to be with God. Jesus Christ made a way for that to happen again. In His presence we will find life, joy, love, and acceptance. Those are things religion can never give. As a result, we will continually go back to the gospel. We will continually reflect on what Jesus did. This will pull us into worship. This will cause us to reflect on the gospel. Reflecting on the gospel is a sure fire way to make much of Jesus.

So if we are ever going to “decrease” we have got to understand that religion is not the answer. So, let’s cut the ties of religion and sink deep into the truth of the gospel. Let’s make much of Jesus!