When you read the title of this article, I wonder what your response is. For a large group of people, it simply would be "yes, amen". For others, there is a sense in which this statement is provocative, as though it "goes too far". I remember, while I attended college in Calgary, Alberta in the late 80's, I was discussing Jesus with a kind, elderly woman who regularly took in orphans and cared for children kicked out of their homes. She was intrigued by my Christian faith and asked about my beliefs. All of it sounded quite fine and good to her, until at one point I explained that I served Jesus. Though she claimed to know what Christians believed, she was quite surprised that I listed Jesus as my God.
She suddenly took a motherly tone towards me, "Now, doing charity and serving God is one thing, and that's good. But be careful of all this nitpicking about serving Jesus. He was just a man, you know. And not too good of one either, from what I've heard- he wasn't even a Saint!"
I had scarcely become a Christian two years before, but I was shocked to hear someone talk about the Lord in that way. Where could someone have gotten that confused about who the Lord Jesus Christ really was, and is today? I had some basic knowledge of the Bible and was serving God, but of one thing I was absolutely sure- Jesus was God. He came to earth, and was God-in-the-flesh. I knew he died for our sins, but also that he showed us how to live, by living as a person while still being God. I didn't know how it all worked, and what the theological nuances were, but I knew those basic things. I would learn more as my faith and studies continued in the scriptures and learning from others.
It turns out that I wasn't alone, either in my learning or my discussion with the elderly lady about Jesus. It had been a debate long running. For literally thousands of years people have been discussing the nature of Jesus divinity. Of all the people who sought to explain this point, I find closest affinity with Athanasius, an Alexandrian bishop who lived from the end of the 3rd century through the end of the 4th.
What I love about Athanasius is two-fold: first, his tireless efforts to clarify the nature of the deity of Christ (which he did primarily through his defense against the heresy of Arianism), and second, for his personal championing of the belief in a present, active, and powerful God (which he did primarily through his affirmation of the ascetics whom he championed and visited, and his seminal work The Life of Anthony,which is a biography of one such ascetic monk).
Historian Justo Gonzales writes of Athanasius in his book "The Story of Christianity" -
Clearly, the presence of God in history was the central element in the faith of Athanasius. Therefore, it is not surprising that he saw Arianism as a great threat to the very heart of Christianity. What Arius taught was that the one who had come to us in Jesus Christ was not truly God, but a lesser being, a creature. Such a notion was unacceptable to Athanasius... in it, the very core of the Christian message was at steak.1
One can scarcely read that statement and not be drawn in, or pushed out from the person of Anthanasius. And if you read his life story, you begin to like him even more. Virtually every appointment and honor he was given as a trusted and loved leader in the church in Alexandria he either tried to avoid, or was clearly uncomfortable with receiving.
His goal was not to win accolades- it was to pastor the flock God had placed in his church and make sure that the message of the gospel was clear and understandable, especially up against the large number of pagan philosophies and the heretical Christian-sects. What we now take as standard Christian orthodoxy, Athanasius was fighting for (an came close to losing several times over the first few centuries of the church) until the end of his life. From his teachings and writings, the Great Cappadocian Fathers took the basis on which they essentially completed the published works solidifying the doctrine of the Trinity for the church, which lasts even till today.
Athanasius endured much to leave a legacy that has helped hundreds of generations understand and engage in a relationship with the living God, Jesus Christ. What he lived and died for, we now enjoy. What will we live and die for? For me, I am thankful that I can live in relationship with the Creator of the universe. He speaks to me, guides me, walks with me. Not because I have attained some greatness, but precisely because I haven't. He became the human God-with-us here on earth to be the greatness, the loving, the sinless, the friend and the king who had come to claim back the earth and the people who were so desperately lost without Him.
And what does he find? He doesn't find perfection. He finds us. And when He finds us, we respond by welcoming Him in. Not just into our mysterious "hearts", but also welcoming him in by making room for him to be master of the inch-by-inch territory of our lives- the workplace, the home, the family talks, the disciplining of children, the loving of our parents, the doing of our school-work, the loneliness of our solitude, the searching of our reading, the cries of our prayers, the hugs of our spouse, and the pain of losing a close friend and having no profound words of comfort to say to those left at the graveside.
He finds us there because that is exactly where we are. We are in those places. And in those places, we don't need a thin concept of divine essence, or a top notch creature- we need God Himself. And so He comes. The Holy Spirit of Jesus, whom He promised, would come as our guide. The Comforter would draw near and never leave us alone. He stands with us for our comfort and peace precisely because he knows what it is to be left to suffer alone. He stands with us in patience precisely because he was deserted with haste. He stands with us in power because he laid down his majesty and stayed the legions of heaven from coming to his rescue in his most dire hour.
What God did to personally engage in our physical world remains a mystery that we can scarcely understand as we touch it through the stories of the Gospels. But it is clear that he paid a terrible and horrible price, while remaining completely capable of asserting his God-hood at any painful juncture that he so chose. But, thankfully, he chose not to exert His Godhood. He chose, instead, to receive the unjust outpouring of pain and punishment that was the payment for our very sins. And though he paid such a price and granted such a privilege to us, he went even further, declaring:
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth"2
In giving Himself to us, coming to earth as a man, He still did not stop the extent of His love. He added to all that a promise that He would be with us, not just for an acceptance at the moment of belief, but as a residing promise of comfort and peace in the embodiment of the Person of God's very Presence- even the Holy Spirit.
Who are we to look into the face of God and declare- "no thank you, Holy Spirit. We don't need you to personally come and help us and dwell with us forever". After such a sacrifice is given to deliver such a gift, a rejection would seem as unreasonable as it would be offensive to the Giver.
Lean into Him then. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. His patient, loving gift awaits you- a chance to be truly honest with the God of the universe who has already suffered personally for your sins and declared you forgiven. Receive His gift of forgiveness freely. In doing so, His presence awaits you in the person of the Holy Spirit. You will never be alone again.
Walking with Him,
Kim Gentes
1. Justo Gonzales, The Story of Christianity (Peabody, MA: Prince Press, 1984), p.175
2. John the Apostle, Gospel of John, Holy Bible/TNIV , John 4:16-17a
Athanasius,