A Jesus Who is Waaaaaaaaaaay Out There

It's weird.

Like John Winebrenner, I believe the church should have no Creeds. I believe in the Bible as our only rule of faith and practice. Still, I find myself monitoring our Body based on how well we live out the Apostles' Creed. It upsets me that, in practice, we don't.

We don't walk the Apostles' Creed talk. We live heresy.

The Jesus part of the Apostle's Creed goes:

And, in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven...

So far so good for the CGGC as far as I can tell. As much as those items of belief can be lived out, I think we are true to the historic faith of the Body of Christ.

It's the next line that I think we abuse horribly:

...and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

Based on that line, it is the historic belief of the Body of Christ that Jesus isn't on vacation. The Almighty Father has given Jesus an important role in the Kingdom until He leaves that place, as the Creed says,

to judge the living and the dead.

To say that Jesus is, at this moment, sitting at the right hand of the Father is to say that he exercises the authority of the King. This is what Ephesians 1:20 and 22 say. "God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church." (22)

Characteristic of his ministry on earth, Jesus uses that authority to practice mercy and grace. Hence, he sits at God's right hand and is interceding for us. (Rom 8:34)

But, he's doing more than that. He's also blessing His people and fighting against (Rev. 2:16), rebuking and disciplining the unrighteous in the church. The words,

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So, be earnest and repent" are the words of Jesus. (Rev. 3:19)

The fact that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty is not just a throw away line in Christian thinking. It is an assertion that Jesus is intensely involved in what His people are doing. He is, at this moment, blessing righteousness and judging, condemning and punishing unrighteousness among his people.

What I see in our denomination is the institutional rejection of the historic Christian belief that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. What I see is the fruit of the conviction that Jesus is a "clockmaker savior." I see a belief that we can be lukewarm in our actions and that we can take oaths and not keep them and the clockmaker savior won't care.

The Jesus of the CGGC is waaaaaaaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaaay out there. We talk orthodoxy but we walk heresy.

In the CGGC, we solemnly vow in the Name of Jesus,

As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ we commit ourselves to make more and better disciples by establishing churches on the New Testament plan and proclaiming the gospel around the world.

But, those words are empty.

By our actions, we don't believe that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. It's a good thing, then, that we have no Creed. Because if we accepted the Apostles' Creed we'd be heaping more judgment on ourselves.

Unfortunately, we do claim that the Scripture is our only rule of faith and practice. We claim to believe Ephesians 1:22. We claim to believe that Jesus is sitting at God's right hand and that he is the head of the church.

I can no see evidence that Christ is blessing us. While the gospel flourishes in many places in our world, I see our plans and strategies being thwarted just as they would be if Jesus was keeping his promise, "I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth," as if he was living out the principle of life in the Kingdom, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent."

We are behaving as if He's not at God's right hand. We are behaving as if He created the Kingdom as if it was a clock--as if he wound it up by dying on the cross, being raised from the dead and ascending into heaven. We are behaving as if He no longer cares if we invoke his name in vain.

We are living as if he is waaaaaaaaaaaaay out there. But, he is sitting at the right hand of God. He is praying. And he is blessing, rebuking and disciplining.

And, we are receiving the just desserts for our empty words and lukewarm deeds.

Repent.