Why Jesus?…

In his own words (part 24)

The Father sent his Son so that we’d come to know him in his Son. Know the Son, and we’d know the Father too. Or as Jesus put it in John 14:7, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on (therefore) you do know him and have seen him.”And why was that so important? Because as Jesus says in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they (Jesus’ disciples) may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”   

To Jesus, then, the focus of eternal life wasn’t on living forever. Nor was it on going to heaven either. What made life eternally worth living was coming to know the source and creator of life in a personal way. 

And isn’t that what makes for a happy, long lasting (eternally worth living) marriage too? It’s knowing each other personally. It’s not about fourteen steps on how to have a happy marriage, like getting a machine to work by following the instructions.  

That came as quite a shock, however, to a man who told me his wife was leaving him. And he had no inkling why. He’d worked hard to give his wife a nice house, and if he died she’d be fine financially. In his mind, therefore, he’d done what a husband was technically “supposed” to do – be a good provider. But in working hard to provide he was away from home a lot, and when his wife reminded him that she’d married him for him, not for a good life financially, he just didn’t get it. 

But wouldn’t the same apply to a person who thinks Christianity is all about obeying a system of rules and regulations to get to heaven? True, Jesus told his disciples to obey him – but for what purpose? Was it a rather cold contract, that if they did what they were technically supposed to do, like that husband providing financially for his wife, that’s what would get them to heaven? But according to Jesus in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 

Obedience, therefore, isn’t the means by which we get eternal life in the future, it’s the means by which we experience eternal life now, in the love relationship we have with the Father and Jesus.