A number of people have asked me why I keep talking with Roman Catholics about ‘certainty’?
I think it is helpful to talk about certainty because it gets quickly to the heart of the Good News about Jesus.
When you ask a religious person if they trust Jesus most will say ‘yes’, or they ‘try to’, but when you ask them are they certain where they will be spending eternity, it shows you where their trust really lies.
Jesus calls us to trust him to save us from Hell (God's Judgement). In perhaps one of the most famous verses in the Bible Jesus says, "For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but will have eternal life" " John 3:16.
The word believes is not a religious word, it simply means trust. The most important question is, do you trust what Jesus is saying? By asking, are you certain where you will be spending eternity, I am really asking do you trust that Jesus has saved you.
If someone says, “I am not sure where I will spend eternity because I'm not sure I'm good enough” - they are not trusting Jesus " they are trusting their own ability to be good.
The humiliating and wonderful Good News that Jesus brings is that we cannot do anything to save ourselves " only Jesus can do that and he will if we trust him. Jesus is not just a good example of how to live " he dies to save us. If we truly understand this, life will never be the same again. Our lives have been saved at great cost to God " we owe him our lives " we also need to trust him to lead our lives, to obey him, to start to get rid of sin, because Jesus saved us for good " not to go back to sin.
It's like the digger [Australian soldier] who is saved by his mate who dies for him on the front line. This digger now lives his life to honor the man who died to save him.
Conversation with Diego
As I have talked to Catholics this week and listened to Cardinal Pell and Pope Benedict it seems to me that the Catholic Church does much to undermine people's trust that Jesus has already died to save them from Hell. The Church puts an unhelpful burden on people by teaching that their eternity depends on how good they are, rather than who they trust. They also call Catholics to trust in things other than Jesus, like Mary, the Pope and religious rituals like the Mass and confession. In doing this they put peoples eternal future at risk.
Today, in St Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral, I met with a Columbian man, Diago, who is very studious in reading his Bible.
I talked to him with another man who gave up a romantic walk on Manly beach with his wife today to take up the opportunity to talk to people about Jesus as a result of reading this blog. (I hope his wife has forgiven him and me!)
The question was " what does it mean when someone is described as a righteous in the Bible? He suggested we look at Mark 18:18-30 " the story of the rich ruler who says to Jesus " Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says " why do you call me good - no one is good except God alone. (That should give us a clue " no one is good in God's eyes.)
Jesus tells him that his law says " obey the commandments " he says that he has " Jesus says he hasn't " he still lacks one thing " he needs to sell all he has and give the money to the poor and follow Jesus. All Jesus is doing here is telling the man to obey the great commandment " to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength (which includes money " the word strength and money are the same in the language this was written in).
Diago had been taught that to be righteous you needed to obey the commandments, but to be perfect, like a priest, you needed to give up all your possessions too. When we pointed out that the passage actually said he lacked something which was needed to obey the commandments " he was surprised. Later in the passage, Jesus says it is impossible for people to be saved, but for God it is possible. The only way to be righteous, to have eternal life is to let Jesus save you " to trust Him.
Stations of the Cross and prayers to Mary
It was interesting watching the stations of the Cross this afternoon. I tried to watch it at St Mary's Cathedral, but there was an administrative glitch with security and I couldn't get in so I rushed home to watch it on TV and only missed the first two stations.
Overall I think the event gives us lots of opportunities to talk about Jesus over the coming weeks, though there were some significant problems.
One thing I really liked about it was the way they taught how Jesus' life and particularly His death gives us an example of how to deal with a whole range of challenges we face. The example of Him being willing to suffer in obedience to His Father and the way that by trusting Father He overcame his fear were compelling. Sometimes in our enthusiasm to show how Jesus' death deals with our sins, it is possible to overlook some of the other important aspects of Jesus death that the Scriptures give us.
However to only portray Jesus as an example of supreme goodness, which I think the presentation did, robs Jesus' death of much of it's power. The good example of what Jesus did, only makes me realize how far short I fall and makes me feel further from God. I need help, I need a savior! The fact that Jesus' death paid for the sins and achieved forgiveness for all who trust Him is even more important than His example of living a perfect life and I don't think this was clearly communicated.
The symbolism of the pageant was rich and profound, and symbols can have that effect. But they can be dangerous too and need to be used carefully.
Symbols, when left unexplained, can be interpreted a number of ways and can be unclear. In contrast words are more precise and can be used to make things clear. That is why God especially communicates with us through His Word " so He can make Himself known clearly.
Another problem with symbols is they can be used in different ways at different times. I remember growing up as a Catholic being taught that the bread symbolized at least 20 different things, and by the time something symbolizes so many things it ceases to mean very much at all.
Symbols can also be used to distort the truth that lies behind them, an example of this was the use of an aboriginal man to carry the cross in the place of Simon of Cyrene " it was a nice gesture but is not what God taught us at that moment in history, something that God thought important enough to put in His Word.
Another distortion was to use a white man with a beard to represent Jesus who was probably of Middle Eastern descent and dark skinned " this sort of thing makes some people feel more comfortable, but excludes others.
Finally symbols can be used to communicate things without actually saying them " an example of this was the portrayal of Mary " who looked younger than her 33 year old Son. Perhaps this was just a coincidence caused by the organisers’ desire to use young actors to represent the youth of Sydney. However, I also suspect that the organisers were comfortable using such a young woman to play the role of Jesus’ mother because it supports the Catholic teaching that Mary was a perpetual virgin, and that she was sinless and therefore didn't suffer dying process. But I can't be sure of this because nothing was said " all we have are the symbols.
These Roman Catholic teachings about Mary are at odds with what is written in the Bible and therefore Protestants consider them offensive to God. In particular many Protestant viewers would have been deeply upset by the practice of praying to Mary that was repeated throughout the stations. I particularly thought it was blasphemous to end the presentation of the death of Jesus (who died so that we could trust only him to save us) with a prayer to Mary " "Pray for us sinners now and at the Hour of our Death".
Who are people being encouraged to put their trust in?
