The Jesus genie …

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Yesterday, I read the following tweet posted to Twitter by a pastor:

“JESUS IS YOUR ‘WAY’ AHEAD. He is your answer to your troubled situation. He is the means to your end. He is your ever present help. He IS!”

There’s something right in that statement …

… what’s right is the idea that Jesus Christ is our ever present help, and the answer to life.

But there’s something very wrong about this statement …

… Jesus Christ is not simply “the means to your end.”

The problem is, with teaching like this being so pervasive from pulpits and splattered across social media today, it is how many people look at Jesus — just a means to their end. He’s a power source, a problem solver, a cosmic genie in a bottle, a god in our pockets. He’s someone you turn to to fix what you’ve messed up.

That’s not how the Bible describes Jesus Christ. Here’s another view, this one from scripture:

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see -such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross,” Colossians 1:15-20.

Looking at Jesus as a means to an end results in our trying to use Jesus for our own purposes. But when we see Christ as He is revealed in scripture, we see our Lord, our Savior, our God — someone to be worshiped, loved, and served.

How do you see Jesus: as a means to your ends, or your Creator worthy of your worship?

Scotty