“For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike competition in Monte Carlo. He came in third. It’s possible to see so many representations of a person that we don’t recognize the real one. In a way, that has happened to Jesus.
It isn’t so much that people say bad things about Him. They simply don’t say enough. Mahatma Gandhi regarded Jesus as a great Teacher. The Muslims consider Him a prophet (less important than the prophet Mohammed, though). Many of our contemporaries who don’t worship Him consider Him a great example. The problem is serious and dangerous. Those who say such things about Him think they are honoring Him. They are not. He is infinitely more than a prophet, a teacher and an example. He is God!
The popular gospel of our culture is that Jesus is good and if we add our best efforts to what He did for us we can be acceptable to God. Our pride takes satisfaction in that approach because it means that we share the credit for our own righteousness. Our righteousness comes from Jesus alone; it doesn’t come from our ability to imitate Him but from our believing in His death and resurrection. He did everything that’s necessary to satisfy what God wants from us. That was true when the apostle Paul wrote this letter and it’s true now.
