Legitimacy.

According to the story, Karl Barth was fielding questions from the audience after a lecture in Rockefeller Chapel on the campus of the University Chicago in 1962. A student stood and asked him if he could summarize his life’s work in theology in one sentence. According to the story a gasp went up from the audience–responding to the student’s perceived audaciousness. Also, according to the story, Barth didn’t skip a beat. He said (paraphrasing) “Yes. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so’.” Olsen

I'll make a confession.  That song has always bothered me, ever since I can remember.  I think I must have been too analytical from an early age.  I didn't find it comforting because I felt it was a circular argument.  I couldn't express that as a child, but I could feel it.  I felt that this song about Jesus' love wasn't big enough.  In my mind, it was the equivalent of  "Jesus Loves you this I know,  Because I said so."  This small example highlights my life long struggle with both authority and the search for authenticity.  Wrapped up in these thoughts is a longing for legitimate authority.  

30 plus years later I now believe that Jesus loves me.  I also believe that the Bible tells me so.  It has been a slow work that has begun in me, to simultaneously feel things at a deeper level so the simplest of statements can be revealed as truth.  What felt before like a weak argument, is now a concept that is an anchor of belief.  I will try to explain how I got here.  Let me start with the simple beauty of this truth:  You cannot separate Jesus from the Bible.  He simply did not leave that option.  You can argue that he is not God and that the Bible is fiction, but you cannot pull him out of the context of the Bible.  

Christ Came to Fulfill the Law

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew 5, we find the fullness of this relationship. In the Beatitudes, just before these verses, Jesus is further clarifying: what it means to love and serve God, and why he is here. After these verses, Jesus goes on to explain that of course murder is a sin, but furthermore anger in your heart is a sin. Not only adultery but carnal lust. With these expansive sections of scriptures Jesus gives hope, but also convicts and essential takes the pious and the depraved and puts them all on the same level before God. He lifts the poor and broken and makes them first in the Kingdom of God and he knocks down the religious hypocrites and makes them last. Jesus' entire ministry is steeped in the scriptures. He quotes scripture constantly and he in fact is the fulfillment of the prophecy of scripture time and time again. (for brevity sake, I won't go into examples, but it's all there) His disciple John, rightly describes Jesus this way: The Word became Flesh

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So that all only explains the depth of Jesus' connection to the Holy Scripture, The Bible.  It doesn't explain why this simple song is true.  This is where I really fail to make a concise argument.  You see, I really want my friends and loved ones to understand the fullness of The Bible.  I want them to see the depth and the beauty and the consistency of all of it.  I want to change their notions of what they think the Bible is saying and see what is really there.  I want them to know that because God is Just, things are they way they are: broken.  It is because God is good and merciful that things will be made right.  This is the story of the Bible, it's not about us, it's about Jesus.  It is the authority of Jesus and his legitimacy that makes the Bible true.  If he is not who he says he is, if he is not the promise, then the Bible fails to live and have context.  If you don't know who Jesus is, if you don't believe that he came to rescue you, then the Bible will fall short and sit on the shelf with The Odyssey, The Illiad, and the Complete works of Shakespeare.  I can read these other books and glean their truth, but their legitimacy is not dependent on their author.  You can get entertainment and inspiration from the Bible, but if you cannot see that the dozens of God inspired authors over thousands of years are telling the story of The Creation, The Fall, the Rescue and The Restoration of us through Jesus Christ then it will all fall short.  

Numbers on a page look like nonsense until we learn simple addition and subtraction.  We progress to geometry, algebra, calculus (not all of us) and greater understanding  of what these numbers can do.  But we must first acknowledge the truth that rings within us, that there is order in this seeming chaos.  God has built within us this search for him, to seek out his plan, to discover his creation.  He bids us to look in every direction.  Frightened religious folk may tell you to be careful where you search, but God does not.  If you seek truth (truly and not just your own will and justification), you will find God there waiting to receive you.  My own search for truth has been marred by my own desires and my own depravity.  I wanted to be right without acknowledging truth.  It is only in Christ that I have been able to step outside my own agenda and really seek the truth.  Anchored to him, I have the freedom to ask really hard questions, to be vulnerable, to be hurt, and to let things come to me.  I was blinded by my own constructed worldview where I was the center of all things, but now I see.  

Again, I fail to escape this seemingly circular statement that lingers in that child's song.  I have heard it said that "Heaven is only Heaven because Jesus is there."  This is the same, if you don't understand who Jesus is neither Heaven or The Bible is particularly convincing.  Jesus is God, who came to Earth to begin a work to redeem his beloved creation.  Because of his resurrection (cannot stress this enough) he has overcome, returned to Heaven and is making a place for us, his Beloved.  In this process, he has given us his Word.  We can't live off of experiencing him only in creation...we need his Word.  His voice in The Word will reveal his voice in The World.  Jesus loves me, this I know, and because I can accept this Love I see his fullness and beauty in Holy Scripture, I see that this book has been shaped by God, through history to reveal himself.  This book gives me the maturity to grow and receive more from the God I love.  

If you are compelled by the person of Jesus Christ, seek him.  Seek him in creation, but also seek him in the discomfort of The Bible.  I'm not saying it's easy, but if you step out in faith he will reveal himself.