Jesus Failed, Furthered, and Finished

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
From now on you do know him, and have seen him.”
John 14:6-7


Jesus failed. “What? Apostasy! Blasphemy! Call the Church Courts to order, prosecute him, prosecute him!” Whoa! Calm down now, and let me explain. Jesus finished every last detail of the assignment the Father had given him, and so proclaimed with his dying breath (John 19:30). And, by dutifully finishing his earthly task, the Son furthered the faith of God’s people (Jew and Gentile alike): Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Law and initiated the Covenant of Grace (Matthew 5:15; Luke 22:20). What Jesus failed to do is permit even the most minute possibility of there being more than one way to the Father, or that there is one way that is manifest equally in and through many different faiths.

Though he had the perfect opportunity to do so, Jesus failed to tell his disciples that it was all right if they didn’t get it/Him. I mean, Thomas set it up perfectly for Jesus to affirm a doctrine of many faiths that all lead to God, when Thomas asked, “How can we know the way?” (John 14:5) All Jesus had to say was something like, “Don’t worry if you don’t get it/me now. There are many other paths, and many other teachers who will be able to show you other ways to the Father. I am just a way, a truth, and a life.” The Lord had a chance to make it clear to his followers that Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and any number of other faiths were all different ways of knowing/saying the same thing, but he failed to do so.

I confess that I am deeply disturbed, very upset, really pissed off, if you’ll excuse the expression, by those “Christians” (That’s what they believe themselves to be, I’m not sure what to call them) who have taken it upon themselves to make up for the Lord’s failure. Like the fool on the presbytery examination committee who told me that I did not understand what Jesus was really saying by what he didn’t say in John 14:6. Or the minister who didn’t like it when I said that for my God to be one and the same with the gods of the Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, he would have to have multiple personality disorder.

Please don’t get me wrong, I have no interest in warring with other faiths. They are not the enemy, the father of lies, who has sold them a load of bull____, is the enemy. But I sure wouldn’t be doing people of other faiths, or of no faith, any favors, by saying, “It’s all good,” when it isn’t. In failing to make any room for syncretism, the Lord has made it perfectly clear that to adulterate, compromise, and corrupt his faith, his teaching, his words, constitutes a great failure on our part, with potentially deadly and eternal consequences for us and for all those whom we fail by believing and proclaiming anything other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4