THE WAY OF JESUS - as posted on FB

Page 1

Let me make this easy for the reader.
I will state the principles Jesus worked from and the reader can either walk away or dig in deeper. It’s just that fast and easy. No one need wade through a ton of research and jargon before they decide whether they even want to have this conversation. However, if you do want to have this conversation, an open-minded conversation, then I will really do my best to speak clearly and succinctly.

I could have titled this treaties as, The Way of Christ, but not everyone regards Jesus as the Christ, but anyone who believes that Jesus of Nazareth is a “real” historical figure in space and time may be able to see and appreciate the points I am trying to make here.
______________________________________________________

THE WAY OF JESUS - page 2

First and foremost, The Way of Jesus, is about “doing the will of his Father.”

According to his own words, Jesus' entire focus in life was the surrender to—the performing of—and the accomplishing of—the will of his Father.

Sounds amazing, but in doing “this” will he was, by default, rejecting his own. Jesus had no separate will from the Father. That does not mean he did not have free will. Rather it establishes that his had free will, because he "chose" the will of the Father over his own. He was not an automaton.

Choosing the will of the Father is the repudiation of taking any reputation or power to himself. 

Taking any kind of power to himself would have been the opposite of doing his Father’s will.

He gives up himself and his own plans for this world. He receives and embraces the will and vision of another. This is huge. Why? Because in this voluntary act of surrender Jesus shows us his WAY.

The WAY OF JESUS begins with the unreserved and complete embracing of the will of his Father. If we are to begin walking the WAY of Jesus, then we must follow the path of the surrender of our own will -- the choice to yield to and embrace the will of God.

Jesus said about himself, “I have come down from heaven to do my Father’s will.” (John 6:38) And then he tells us that our calling is the same as his, "“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

To be a Christian, to be a true child of God, is not predicated on what one “believes” but on what one “does.” This idea sounds like it flies in the face of much of Christian practices these days, and it does, but it is, nonetheless, at the very core of the gospel Jesus preached. Jesus was no "revolutionary" or "political" personality. He wasn't even a "religious" man in the way people usually think of religion. Jesus was the Son of God, sent into this world to do one thing — to accomplish the will of his Father.

People lose out with God because they say to Him, “My will be done.” And they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because God grants them their desire — to have their own way — to be the god of their own life — to shape their world in their own way.

They cannot enter heaven because heaven is where the will of God is done — without any resistance.

No one is allowed to merely add God onto their life and then go on living as though God is with them in order to help them succeed at getting their own way. No. We are all called to the same orientation to the will of God as was Jesus - to surrender to, to embrace, and to “do” the will of God. Let’s talk about what that looked like in his life. It is pretty shocking on a number of levels. 

NEXT INSTALLMENT - pretty soon