IS YOUR JESUS A FIXER OR LORD?

By Akin Ojumu

Three things draw people to most religious organizations. 

1. Promise of supernatural occurrences, extraordinary miracles, deliverances from demonic Goliaths, and victory over all enemies seen & unseen 

2. Promise of health, wealth, & success 

3. Promise to meet an anointed man of God who has the power to make all of these things come through 

Whenever most religious organizations market themselves or run commercials, they typically don’t invite people to come because they are going to learn to deny themselves, or to not love the world or the things of the world. The radio & tv commercials don’t promise to help them overcome the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, or the pride of life. 

Instead, the religious organizations promise the exact opposite. The radio jingles appeal to the cravings of the human of desire. They tell people to: 

“Come get your blessing! Come get your miracles!! Come get your deliverance!!!”

What makes this marketing strategy successful is because these are the very things that the human nature craves. 

So, the people come in their masses expecting to encounter the supernatural, receive their blessings, and obtain power from the anointed man of God who has power to deliver all these promises. These are the baits Gospel hucksters use to haul in their catch of fishes.

Of course, the Jesus being preached in the contemporary denominations is not the Jesus of the Bible. At some point, a lot of these Houses of Horror, erroneously called Churches, decided that the Gospel simply wasn't enough. They concluded that Scripture alone, wasn’t sufficient. 

So, they borrowed from the world. 

Concert lighting, fog machines, celebrity pastors with big sponsorship deals, sermon series with titles designed by a marketing team, Church buildings engineered to feel less like a House of God and more like a music festival. 

And that’s entirely on purpose. The strategy is simple. Make it fun, make it relevant, make it comfortable, and they’ll come. 

And it works. 

The seats fill. They amass massive fanatical following. Their social media clips get millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes and raving reviews. 

The faux-Jesus of the modern-day Church is abundantly agreeable. He wants to fix your marriage, numb your anxiety, increase your finances, and brighten up your Monday mornings. This pseudo-Jesus stands at the door of your heart, not as Lord, but as a life coach, waiting to help you become the best version of yourself and enable you to live your best life now.

Buried inside that theology is a lie. You are still the center of the story. Jesus just exists to serve your plot. He is at your beck and call, tending to your temporal cravings, and fulfilling your heart desires.

But the Jesus of the Bible is the Almighty God. He is the incarnate God who was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.

The Jesus of the Bible died, not to improve your circumstances, but to atone for your sin. He rose not to give you a bigger paycheck, but to defeat death itself. The Bible Jesus asks you to deny yourself. He tells you not to love the world because you can’t love the world and love God at the same time.

1 John 2:15-17

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

The Biblical Jesus, in John 6, lost the crowd on purpose. They came for miracles. He gave them doctrine. They walked. He watched them go and didn’t change a word. Then He looked at His disciples and asked. “Do you want to leave too?” 

John 6:52-69

“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.” When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

The real Jesus knew that faithful preaching costs you the room. The faux-Jesus keeps it full. The Jesus who only comforts you and never convicts you is not a Savior; he is an idol built in the shape of your preferences.

Jesus loves sinners like you and like me. The question is, “Will you deny yourself and follow Him and Him alone?”

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Source & Attribution: This commentary borrowed from BezelT3