1 Peter 1:21
Through him you have
come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your
faith and hope are set on God.
When Jesus says “I am the way and the truth and the
life”, he speaks of how through him we come to trust in God. In this way, Christianity is in contrast to Judaism
and Islam. In Judaism, God the Father,
the Lord, He whose Name is too holy to be pronounced by humans. In Islam, the relationship is directly with Allah,
with God, the all-powerful. We
Christians come to trust in God through the Messiah, God-become-human, our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Why have we come to trust in God through Jesus? We could we not simply trust God
directly? What is it about the plan of God
that dictates a human emissary to show us the way? Now, I am not challenging Peter’s
assertion. I have come to trust God
through Jesus. But why does it have to
happen this way?
What is the effectiveness of a personal, individual
relationship with Jesus? Maybe that is
because this is the way that we thrive, in relationship to one another? Perhaps, in a world where our greatest pains
can come from relationships that failed or were exploitative or manipulative,
having God not as some great “I AM” floating off beyond the clouds in heaven,
but loving us so much that he did not consider being God as something to be
grasped, but put off Godhood and took on the form of a servant…
If Jesus can be trusted, then so to God can be
trusted. It starts in relationship.
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