The Ministry of Jesus Christ

 

We live in a time of anomalies in the Christian World View. In the past few centuries I think most Protestant Christians agreed that the purpose of a believer was to live the a Christian life according to the biblical perspective of what Jesus Christ proclaimed during the time of His ministry here on Earth.  

 

Under that world view we heard the gospel preached; We believed that Jesus bore our sins upon the cross as the sacrifice for our sin; We were baptised and received the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. We began a repentant life of living according to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and proclaiming salvation in the name above all names Jesus Christ. The focus was on Jesus Christ at the center of the narrative. 

 

Now we have lost that fairly simple narrative for several different ones based on Adventist doctrines of the seventh day or the investigative judgement; Calvinist doctrines of grace and five point Calvinism; Charismatic doctrines of laying on of hands and speaking in tongues of angels. There is a melting pot of doctrines and much confusion of these different perspectives. 

 

The result is that people are saying things like "People who believe on Jesus Christ alone are not making well established and long lasting converts." We need to do what Jesus did with His disciples and preach that the Kingdom of God is at hand while at the same time making sure to disciple them as Jesus did when He sent out the disciples in Matthew chapter ten verses four through fourteen. Instructing disciples as Jesus did Jesus did is a great idea but when Jesus was crucified and then resurrected from the dead the message moved from being the Kingdom of God is at hand to that the King is Risen. The focus became salvation in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 4:5-12).

 

I think the idea of replacing the gospel with the idea that the Kingdom of the God is at hand is probably grounded in the idea that being saved by grace we are not able to allow any works that we can do into the salvation matrix. So, believing on the name of Jesus Christ becomes a difficult pill to swallow for the Calvinist as it is close to saying we do this believing ourselves and Calvinists cannot abide that idea. As a result they have a problem with the very idea of having to believe on Jesus of Nazareth and even repenting and being baptised because there is a clear implication that we must do that of ourselves and as depraved individuals they refuse to accept that as being possible. Therefore, they have a problem with the entire third chapter of John. That is a big problem to have and explains why when asked if they are saved many Calvinists reply that they do not know and cannot know.

 

The ministry of Jesus was a period of time when the Son of God walked the Earth in the body of a man and proclaimed the truth of sin separating God from man. He preached that the Kingdom of God was at hand and a message of repentance. He both modeled the Christian life and described it to his disciples and to greater Israel. What He did formed the basis for the writers of the New Testament to bring us both the good news, and foundation of the Christian life.

 

That ministry on the Earth was punctuated by the death, burial, resurrection and subsequent appearance of Jesus Christ to the apostles and other folk. Then His giving of the great commission and His ascension into Heaven, followed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two, which set the scene for the spread of the gospel to the nations and all of the Earth. This is the gospel and the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the only name under heaven by which you must be saved and yes you must believe on Jesus Christ to receive eternal life.