Tom of Disputations posts:
This morning at breakfast, my eight-year-old mentioned that his Catholic school teacher told his class there was a book that would completely change how people thought of the Last Supper. Since his teacher had mentioned the book to me a couple of weeks ago, I knew she was talking about The DaVinci Code.
G.K. Chesterton had wrote about how we take great truths and exchange them for things much less grand. To bring Jesus down to some mistaken human level with faults is a most perverse trend. If I were to believe the Christology contained in the Da Vince Code it would not be a cause of joy but of despair. Sure your viewing of the Last Supper would change since the book views Jesus not as the Messiah and that the whole Church is a fraud.
From the “Last Temptation of Christ” to the latest T.V. movie on Judas; we are presented with a fallible Jesus to somehow make him more human and accessible. The Judas movie had Jesus regretting losing his temper and because he had a tendency to lose things he gave the money pouch to Judas. This presents the fallacy that the definition of being human is to sin. They see Jesus’ perfection as making him less human. When we sin we our not fulfilling what God has called us towards, but instead are walking away from it. Adam and Eve were not something else prior to their fall. Their were human both before and after.
If Jesus had faults and could and did sin then God had offered a blemished lamb for a sacrifice unable to redeem us . This mistaken view presents Jesus not as a Messiah that atoned for our sins, but something else instead. Where would be the good news in this? We would still be in our sins.
It surprises me how easy it is for Christians to replace the grand truths of the faith with cheap forgeries. That idiotic books and movies make people reevaluate their faith. We can laugh at how ridiculous The Da Vince Code is, but Catholic Answers and other organizations are getting many calls on this with people accepting this junk at face value. If only people could read the Gospels with this same acceptance.
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If anyone could point me to a work, a detailed work or commentary on the oft quoted phrase “Jesus was just like us in every way but sin”, I would be most anxious to read it. The full meaning, or even the most essential message devulged by that phrase, seems to continually get in my way of a desired closer relationship with Christ on a daily basis.
I feel remorse, Jesus did’t. I feel guilt, Jesus didn’t. I have hope, Jesus didn’t. I have the burden of the stain of original sin, Jesus didn’t. etc. I try to keep in mind when being reminded of the fact that He was like us in every way save for sin, that sin accounts for an incredible difference between most of us and Jesus, and that all we have to do to really be like Jesus is to eliminate sin within us, sort of like moving that mountain over to the left six inches or so. Jesus could do it, I can only try.
Here are a few:
1 John 3:5 – … you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
Hebrews 4:15 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.
James 1:13 – When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
2 Corinthians 5:21 – God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (i.e. his suffering and death took the place of our sin)
1 Peter 19 – … but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 2:22 – He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:9 – He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
And there are more…also Matthew 4 also shows that Jesus could not sin as he was tempted for 40 days from the devil.
Joel