Which Jesus are you talking about?
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| English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Both shepherds and wisemen were challenged by the concept of the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. During the next meditations we will consider the historical development of the doctrine of Christ.
In our day there is an emphasis on having a personal encounter with Jesus. The important truth in this emphasis is that Jesus Christ is indeed a person, and we need to know him personally. It is one thing to know about someone, and it is something else to know that individual personally.
At the same time, if all we have is some kind of personal experience, how do we know that we have encountered the real Jesus Christ? We read that Satan poses as an angel of light. Perhaps we have entered into a personal relationship with a demon posing as Jesus.
This is an important question because liberalism, modernism, and neo-orthodoxy have emphasized such “personal encounters,” but the person they introduce in these encounters is a far cry from the Christ of the Bible and of historical Christianity. Very often it is just a Christ of their imagination.
We need some protection to prevent our subjective experiences from creating a mythological Christ. A well-known gospel song has this question and answer in its refrain: “You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.” The author of this song likely did not intend to set forth a totally subjective religion, but if the only way we know that we “serve a risen Savior” is to have a subjective feeling, then we don’t have much to go on.
How much better to sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so.” God’s Word is what tells us about the incarnate Word of God. It is in biblical doctrine that we find the objective balance to our subjective experiences. The Bible tells us about the Person we have encountered and frees us from demonic delusions and misconceptions.
It is easy to fall into an impersonal doctrinalism that neglects to maintain a vibrant relationship with Jesus, but it is also easy to fall into a subjective experientialism that makes of Jesus a creation of our minds. If you are out of balance between these two poles, determine what steps you can take to correct it.
