The Approachable Jesus

In keeping with the heritages of the Reformed and Evangelical traditions, I am convicted to share a particular idea: the approachable Christ. So often today, we take this for granted. The Reformers certainly would not have. In my Reformation history & doctrine class, we discussed the view of Christ in Luther's time as an angry judge. This is part of the reason the Church of Luther's time found it appropriate to pray to Mary or to certain Saints. These were seen to serve as mediators between sinful man and Jesus Christ. Luther himself was terrified of Christ. Believing he would only be saved from God's wrath in hell or extended purgatory, he was meticulous about confessing sins, afraid he might forget some small sin. His confessions became so extensive that his abbot told him to come back when he had a real sin to confess. Luther wrote of his perception of God during this time:

I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God and said, "As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the Decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience.

What he discovered for himself upon studying Romans 1:17, and we must never forget, is that God's righteousness is not a standard we are required to live up to on our own, but something he gives to his people by his substitutionary atonement for sins. In other words, if we are required to meet God's righteous standard on our own, this could never be described as gospel (which means "good news"). In fact, this would be terrible news. The good news is that, "For our sake (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Luther re-discovered that Jesus was not an angry judge to his people (though he will be to those who reject him), but he himself was the mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). Far from adding "pain to pain" (above quotation), he came that we might receive "grace upon grace" (John 1:16).

The cross, then, is the basis for a personal relationship with God, for Hebrews 4:16 informs us that this mediator has achieved for us the right to go boldly before the throne of grace. If your "personal relationship" with God is through some other means than the cross, then it will not save you. Those who are not trusting Christ have great reason to be terrified of God as Martin Luther was. But hear the good news:

God is not angry with those who trust him and the forgiveness that has come by the cross. When God sees his people, he does not see their sinful failures, but the perfect righteousness of his only Son. God is not annoyed with the prayers of his people, but sees them as his children, co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). And "he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). The logic there is that if God has proved his redeeming love by the blood of the cross, why would we not trust him to do what is best for us? Why would we be afraid to approach a God like this? He delights to be in fellowship with his children. He has made himself approachable at great cost to himself. The assurance of pardon from Cahaba Park Church's liturgy on Sunday best sums it up:

Hear the good news!

Who is in a position to condemn?

Only Christ. Christ died for us, Christ rose for us,

Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us.

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life has gone; a new life has begun.

Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace.

ALL: Thanks be to God.