Jesus was not a moral teacher!
By viewing Jesus this way you are missing the point of the Chrisitan faith
If you are someone who is not a Christian when you hear the name Jesus you probably think Son of god (lowercase g on purpose) and moral teacher. I disagree with the first claim, and I also think the second claim could potentially be the reason you haven’t given Christianity a chance.
When I was growing up, I viewed Jesus as the Son of God and a moral teacher. This lead to a strained relationship with God. When I agreed with him, I would listen, but when I didn’t, I would brush it off or feel guilty about it.
I had my ups and downs in my Christian faith, but in the most recent stage of my relationship with God, it has been a lot more personal. Yes, I know cliche. But please hear me out.
My Christian upbringing
When I was young, I viewed Christianity as a set of rules that I had to follow to go to heaven. I think this probably pretty representative of a lot of Christian upbringings. This led me to view God as a teacher, someone who I learned from, and was disciplined by.
In my current go around with my relationship with God, I decided to learn about him and get to know him. I listened to a lot of apologetic speakers, read a couple of books, and started reading the Bible with commentary. Reading it with commentary is a must, some parts of the Bible make zero-sense without context.
Through this effort, I met him. I learned who God is, and I began to understand his love for us. This love has been consistent over time. You can see the connections between the Old Testament (old stuff thousands of years old) and the New Testament (Jesus and the Gospel). For anyone who says that the Old Testament God and the New Testament God are different, I implore you to listen to Tim Keller.
Now, if I had to summarize what being a Christian is, it is acknowledging that I am not God. Thank goodness for that!
Now that I know God and understand his love for me, following the “rules” are so much easier. He also tells us through the Bible that we will all fail to perfectly follow them, and that is okay.
That is my current story of becoming a Christian, so let me get back to the main point of the article. How viewing Jesus as a moral teacher is hurting your chances of becoming a Christian.
Viewing Jesus as JUST a moral teacher
By viewing Jesus as a moral teacher, you are treating him just like any other teacher. You will go to the class and if you like what they are saying you will continue to go. And if you don’t like what they are saying, you will decide to not pay attention and wait for the semester to be over.
By starting your relationship like this, you are level setting yourself with God. This is the exact same position Adam and Eve put themselves in with the Garden of Eden. God gave them once simple rule: “Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Then the devil tempted them and said the reason God doesn’t want you to is that then you will become as smart as him. So, they did it. They were tempted by being equals with God, and they went for it. By eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they wanted to become the rule-makers themselves.
When you approach Jesus as a teacher, you are biting from the same tree of Adam and Eve. You want to be the rule maker with God, not in service to him. This strategy will end up leading further away from God than closer to him.
To wrap up this conversation, if during this Easter season, you want to become closer to God, I would advise you to not focus on the rules that get so many people caught up but instead look for resources that will help you meet God.
Trying to meet God with negotiations is a recipe for disaster, ask Adam and Eve they tried it.
About the Author
I am new to this whole blogging game. I write about topics that I find interesting, and that can provide value to my readers. The recent topics I have written about are finance, business trends, and some self-help. If you have any comments or questions around any of these topics, feel free to email me at huskdoes@gmail.com. And if you like the articles subscribe to my newsletter to get all my month’s articles in one email.
