The point of Jesus was to reveal God. However, who Jesus revealed God to be, was diametrically opposed to the exacting, condemning, wrathful, distant, detached, and sanctimonious God of religion.
The life Jesus lived–loving the unlovable, forgiving the unforgivable, welcoming the dispossessed, befriending the abandoned, remembering the forgotten, protecting the powerless, uplifting the downtrodden, comforting the brokenhearted, defending the victimized–this life was the revelation of God. Whenever, wherever, or through whoever this spirit is expressed, God is revealed.
A person will discover many different understandings and explanations about God in the countless religions, philosophies, belief systems, spiritualities, creeds, doctrines, and faith communities throughout history and the world. But the reason the person known as Jesus is profoundly significant to humankind is because when it comes to knowing who or what God really is, “he’s the guy.”
In a nutshell, Christianity according to Jesus is that God is not some abstract theological construction somewhere distant in the sky that you relate to through the explanations, stipulations, obligations, checklists, rules, structures, and clerics of religion. Go into your heart and your humanity, go into yourself to the depths from which your life flows, access what you most deeply know and have always known. Love, mercy, compassion, caring, grace, goodwill, kindness, solidarity, virtue, courage–this is the highest truth, this is the ultimate reality, this is God. This was the point of Jesus. (Used to Go to Church, Chap. 5 "He's the Guy!"). Buy on Amazon.
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