Walking and Listening

I just went for a short walk on the trails behind my daughter's school (and our church) before I had to pick her up. I was so very tempted to just stay in the truck and listen to 30 more minutes of the audio book I picked up last week at the library or, better yet, lay the seat back and take a nap. But....I held up against the temptations, pulled myself out of the truck, and trudged off through the woods to the trail.

It was a great walk for a couple of reasons. One - once my arms started moving and I lost myself to the rhythm of walking I had a wonderful feeling of well-being and peace. Two - I had brought along my iPod and listened to a sermon by Tim Keller of Reedemer Church in Manhattan titled Exclusivity: How can there be just one true religion? It's part of a series Keller has on The Reason for God. He recently wrote a book by the same title as the series.

Keller's sermon made such an impact on me that I wanted to write some of it down...to share with anyone out there who might come across my blog, but also because writing about something better cements it in my head, and therefore in my heart, too. And these are things worth keeping in my heart.

The scripture reference was 1 John 4:1-10:

1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Keller made a lot of great points in this sermon, but there were three that really stuck with me: the three things that make Christianity different from other beliefs.

First, notice in verse 2 where John says, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." John doesn't say to check that the spirit acknowledges that Jesus was born but that Jesus has come. It's a subtle difference, but important. Has come implies that He came from somewhere...that He was somewhere before coming to earth...that He simply was. John is telling us that Jesus Christ is indeed God. He is not just a great teacher or a moral man. He...is...God....incarnate.

Second, in the same verse, John says "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh". Flesh is the key word here. Some religions (Eastern primarily) believe the flesh is bad and heaven will provide us with an escape from it eventually. Other religions (Western primarily) believe that the flesh is bad and that we must tame it by following rules and regulations so we can eventually get to heaven. But here, John is telling us that the flesh isn't bad - the God of the universe wrapped Himself in flesh and came to our Earth. Christianity tells us that ultimate reality is not that we will escape from our flesh, from the Earth and all that is in it, but that the material world will all one day be redeemed.

Third, skipping down to verses 9 & 10, we are told what true love is: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." True love, the love that God showed us through Jesus Christ, is sacrifical. It is love that is given to those who are not lovely, to those who don't first love us, to those who may mock us, hate us, kill us. Jesus didn't love us because we were good, because we followed rules, because we loved Him first - No, He loved us in spite of all our sins, all our faults, all our ugliness. He loved us so much, even as we were His enemies, and died for us.

So - this Jesus I believe in...who is He? He is God who pulled on a suit of flesh, made Himself a man while still being God, and expressed true love to His creatures by living the life we couldn't live and dying the death we couldn't die. And what am I to do? I am to live humbly before Him and all men, loving in the same way He first loved me: sacrifically. I am to appreciate this flesh I have been given, this material world I live in, because God has declared that His creatures and His creation are worth redeeming.