Too Much 'Jesus'

Jesus Christ is the only, perfect, good, loving, just, holy, personal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent son of the Living God. He is the second member of the Trinity. He was born as a child, from a virgin, into a deprived world with the primary purpose of sacrificing himself for Humanity. His sacrifice on the cross offered a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the depravity of man, as a whole. This sacrifice and divine intervention was predicted in the Holy scriptures from the beginning of time. During his incarnation, He was fully man and fully God in a perfect and non-contradictory union... And probably more than all that, but I can't think of it now.

But he is not the only member of the Trinity. He, along with the Father and Holy spirit, form the perfect trinity, and there can be no perfection with Jesus alone.

1 John 5:7

 ^"For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." 

I have seen in some brothers the tendency to overemphasize the possition of Jesus Christ is our lives as believers. Granted, it is never wrong to focus ourselves, imitate, or even give praise to Christ, to whatever degree, but there is a balance. We cannot pretend, or live as if Jesus is the only member of the Trinity.

Having 'too much' of Jesus is when we place more importance on Him than the other members of the trinity. We treat the members of the Trinity as unequal. Some have taken Jesus, expanded and bloated Him out of context from within the Trinity, to be something He isn't, and then forgotten about the Father and Holy Spirit.

There are three distinctions within the same essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One cannot fully and properly know God unless you treat all three distinction with the same importance and significance, and are engaging and seeking them to the same extent.

Maybe you have picked up on the "Jesus" trend that follows many churches?

In fact, when these worship songs, pastors, and even fellow brothers speak of 'Jesus,' I don't believe they fully know what they mean. They often speak of him as this exclusively loving and graceful being, and He is that, but He also brought brimstone and judgement with Him.

Jesus spoke of and to the Father as much as he did of Himself, and even told the disciples that it would be better for the Holy Spirit to be with them (John 16:7). It is the Spirit that delivers us from our old nature, guides the believer, convicts the believer, and comforts the believer. It is the Father that sent Jesus, answered our prayers, and gives us life.

When we unequally emphasize Jesus Christ in the trinity over the other members, our understanding of God is warped.

As far as I have observed, when we focus too much on Jesus we end up with a lot of love, and not a lot of conviction to carry out our love properly. We end up with a lot of remembering, and not a lot of reaction as the proper response to remembering. We end up with a lot thankfulness, and none of it spurs us on, like it should. We end up with a lot of emotional worship, but not a lot of applicable worship. We get really motivated, but lack the knowledge to know what to do with it, or even how to make it last. We get convicted, but because we don't understand grace, we don't see a need for change. All of those things are good, but we cannot live our lives exclusively focused on the Sacrifice of Jesus; there is more to Christianity than that. People who place more importance on Jesus than the Father and the Holy Spirit tend to get stuck on 'grace,' and fail to go on and see why we were granted such grace, or how we are to carry it out. We were granted grace so that we should "walk in newness of life." Read Romans 6:1-10.

I cannot explain the love of Christ. He is the best and clearest manifestation of a caring, loving, graceful and benevolent God, and by no means to will I ever undermine the significance of His complete work. Understand, however, that the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary was a means to an end, and not the end in itself. The means was the sacrifice of Christ, and the end was intimacy with God, as a whole. Don't get stuck on the love of Christ alone; realize why the Father sent him, and how the Holy Spirit empowers us to live a life in response to Gods love. Don't make the mistake of living as if Jesus Christ is all of God.

- Jerry