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Why Jesus Is My Hero #42 of 52

What kind of a God is God? And how does he feel about us and the way we treat him?

When we hear the word "sin" it's easy to think in terms of broken rules or a general feeling of guilt about things we're doing that we know we probably shouldn't. But the Bible often talks about our sin using relational categories - it reminds us ultimately our sin is a rejection of God himself. When we love other things more than we love him - when we turn and start to rely on idols - from God's perspective that's no different from a wife cheating on her husband. It's spiritual adultery.

One particularly hard-hitting passage that picks up on this relational view of sin is Hosea 2:

"Plead with your mother, plead--
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband--
that she put away her whoring from her face"
...
"For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'"

God sees his people turning aside from him and going after other gods, and it deeply grieves his heart like a husband discovering his wife has been giving herself to other men. The language here is the language of divorce proceedings: "she is not my wife, and I am not her husband" marking an end to the marriage relationship. Yet God is still pleading with his adulterous lover, Israel - still longing for her to turn back to him in repentance, rather than trusting in the pagan fertility gods - the Baals - that she's started to rely on to provide for her needs.

What makes this scenario so tragic is that it was all so utterly unnecessary:

"And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal."

It's as though she was a prostitute working her trade in the upper room, as various men brought her payment, and she thought she was so clever and self-reliant for earning all this cash without having to depend on her husband. Only what she never realised was that all this time, those guys had been slipping in to her husband's study downstairs and stealing £50 notes out of her husband's drawer in order to pay her. The same supply of money that her husband had told her about on many occasions should she ever be in need, that she was welcome to help herself to at any time to provide for her. It was her husband who had been providing for her all along - it was his money they were using to pay for her services. If only she'd turned to her husband and looked to him, instead of thinking she could find what she wanted elsewhere.

That's what makes our sinful idolatry so stupid and so utterly abhorrent. God our Creator is the only one who can really provide for our needs, and he longs to care for us and give us what we need. We can look elsewhere - to our education, to our wallets, to our relationships - to make us happy and protect us from evil, but ultimately all those things come from God in the first place. How it must grieve him to see us reject him for the things he has made.

Seeing sin in these relational categories makes it all the more amazing when we then recognise God's grace towards us sinners. How incredible it is that he sticks with us, patiently persevering with his wayward wife. It's a beautiful picture later in the Bible when we see Jesus as the heavenly bridegroom who laid down his life to present the church spotless and without blemish before him. It's an amazing thing when a spouse forgives the one who has betrayed them so deeply and chooses to stick with them in spite of their adultery - and it should truly blow our minds when we remember that that's exactly the way Jesus treats us, his people.

Why Jesus Is My Hero #41 of 52

The further we go in the Christian life, the more conscious we become of what hopeless sinners we are. Any pretence that we could earn our way to God by our own efforts, and simply "trying harder" becomes very hard to maintain in the bitter face of experience. That's why it's such a joy to know that the Christian's fate depends not on their own goodness and purity, but on Jesus'. The more we can lift our eyes off ourselves and onto him, the better. That's why I started writing this series in the first place - to try and grow my own vision of Jesus.

The way the New Testament describes this is the idea of "union with Christ" - that we are in him. One place that describes this really clearly is Colossians 3:1-4:

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

If we're Christians, then through faith in Jesus we are united with him such that Paul can say "your life is hidden with Christ in God". His future is our future. When Christ who is your life returns, we also will appear with him in glory. It's a very different way of thinking for 21st Century Westerners like me, but it's an awesome truth that gives such confidence and hope in the midst of life's ups and downs.

The irony is that the more we focus on Christ and not on ourselves, God often works through that to change us so that we actually do become more holy. But that is the result not the cause of our salvation, meaning that it doesn't become this anxious introspection of constantly wondering if we've done enough good to be right with God this morning. The Christian life should be one of confident assurance, joy and thankfulness at what God has already achieved. The fact that we don't deserve our salvation at all just makes it all the more wonderful, if we're humble enough to embrace the fact that we simply aren't good enough to contribute anything except our need of it.

Why Jesus Is My Hero #39 of 52

Things rarely remain the same for very long in this world: favourite restaurants come under new management who callously change the menu; favourite beauty spots in the countryside get bought up by property developers who turn them into housing estates; friends and family members drift apart, and we lose touch with people who were once close companions.

But there is one person who remains unchangeable: Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us:

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever."

In his sinless perfection, Jesus' nature and character aren't liable to change. The Jesus we can relate to today as Christians is the same Jesus who walked the earth 2,000 years ago. Certainly his situation has changed: he's now seated at the Father's side in heaven, ascended and glorified in a way that he never experienced during his time on earth. But it hasn't changed his loving character. If it were you and I who were given such honour and authority, I'm pretty sure it would have gone to our heads and turned us into ruthless monsters on the ultimate power trip. But Jesus is the same meek, humble, servant-hearted, loving Lord he was when he walked to his death on the cross.

Some people accuse Christians of being out-of-date and out-of-touch with the modern world - times have changed, they say, and we need to revise our views and our ethics in the light of it. But if Christianity is first and foremost a relationship with a person, Jesus, then the more important question isn't whether the times have changed, but whether that person has changed - has he revised his views on what he loves and what he hates, what pleases him and grieves him? But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever - there is no shifting or changing with him - and so Christians seek to please him in the same way today that they did long before the Internet and the 60s and vanilla ice cream came along.

The writer to the Hebrews applies his truth in this way: "Jesus Christ is the same... Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings". If Jesus hasn't changed, nor should our views on right and wrong, on the nature of the world and of who God is.

But it also means we can have huge confidence for the future - Jesus will always love those who trust in him, he will always be interceding for us at the Father's side, he will surely fulfill his promises and return one day to bring us to be with him. None of his fundamental characteristics like his trustworthiness or his faithfulness to his word are ever going to change. Hurrah!