Why Christ?
Last Sunday morning I woke up to this question and I have been scribbling since then. There are several teachers, mentors, many more people to follow. But why do I personally choose Christ to be my life’s Savior?
O taste and see to know who I am – God says, experience me. It is a theme commonly heard and preached that we need to be experiencing God’s love. But there has to be reasons to why one follows a leader or a role model. Reasons to why one worships.
Why do we believe what we believe?
In the first part of my writing, I want to introduce you to the same sermon I heard twice last Sunday in two different occasions by two different pastors (after which I was convinced there is something I need to discover). It is the incident of the woman who was caught in the act of adultery mentioned in John 8.
Picture along with me as you read this, the Scribes and Pharisees present a woman in a place of worship (they would have otherwise thought it would defile the holy place, if the purpose was just to condemn her, but their purpose was to test Christ!). So they ask Christ about what He had to say to this act.
According to the law, they should have been calling for a stoning ceremony. The adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death (give Leviticus 20:10 a check), but again the purpose was not to punish the woman, but to publicly question Christ.
Christ in response, asks the person without any sin among them to cast the first stone. Soon later, everyone leaves one by one because the word says their conscience troubled them. And Christ says that He doesn’t condemn her either but she should sin no more.
Something was bothering the Pharisees and the Scribes, the fact that Christ took a stand for the wrong doers! They were so done with Him being with the tax collectors, Samaritans, adulterers and other sinful people as they categorized.
What was bothering me throughout the sermon (twice to remind you), silly as it may sound, but when the incident took place and as the scribes were speaking, the word says He stooped down twice to write something on the ground.
Some theologians say that He must be writing the names of the people there and their sins but its hard for me to believe that because Christ was in the act of forgiving a sin and if He was writing the records of the sins committed by other people who have sinned, it contradicts His very nature. So it must be something else and we can only guess but something compels me to say He was re-writing the law we read in Leviticus 20:10 or setting a new law in place (got me reminded of how God wrote the ten commandments for Moses to carry it down for His people).
In that Holy ground, He was establishing something so profound that till the end of time, man’s ideas of sin was to change. He was establishing the very fact that man is sinful, yes! But he doesn’t lose his position in Christ. There is eternal death for sin but because of His grace we are forgiven. If we come to Him, we will never lose the love and respect in His eyes and because of this very fact we will think twice before sinning.
We might lose our ‘experience’ of grace that we receive from Him, but we will never lose our position in Him. So we can get back to that position of being called His child anytime.
Just imagine how wonderful it feels when someone stands up for you and speaks on your behalf in front of your enemy? Wow! Isn’t it?
Read verses 10 and 11 along with me,
Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
I know, just like that adulteress woman who called Him Lord (while the other Pharisees addressed Him as a mere teacher), that the answer to eternal death, the answer to my state of darkness, the Savior of my iniquities can be none other than Him because I can not lose my position in Him. And He will stand up for me while the world condemns me.
This is why – Christ it is and Christ it will be.
Verses to meditate on: John 8:1-11
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