LKM On Jesus Christ: He Is The Real Deal!

This e-mail constitutes the personal testimony of this BLOG's author about his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To make this testimony personal, the author has chosen to completely eschew trite platitudes every one else makes, concerning the King of kings and Lord of lords. The author has also chosen, for the purpose of this BLOG article, to set aside the scriptures of the Old Testament, as well as those New Testament letters of the apostles Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude. Instead, we shall focus exclusively upon the Word of Jesus Christ Himself, as recorded in the scriptures, to "hear God's Word directly from the horse's mouth", so to speak.

Jesus Christ is the Real Deal because there can be no other explanation possible but God, for His advent into the world, in perfect and complete fulfillment of several hundreds of prophecies made about Him in the Bible Old Testament, five centuries and more earlier. Even the cynics, who might argue that He, in conspiracy with other men, arranged His life to deliberately and consciously fulfill all those prophecies, will find their mouths stopped to explain prophecies on where He was to be born, from which tribe or clan lineage He was to come, how He would be hated, despised and rejected by most people of His time, and circumstances surrounding His death upon Golgotha's cross. Interesting: Psalm 22:14-18 prophesies the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; and yet, crucifixion as a punishment for crime was completely unknown in those Old Testament times. There is no other religious belief system which can and does make such a comparable historic-prophetic claim. NOT ONE!

Jesus Christ is the Real Deal because He is "politically incorrect", i.e. did not fashion His gospel according to the popular thinking of men, but lived in perfect obedience to God His Father, regardless of what men may think or say. John 15:18-21. He was not a man of concession to the world, in order to make Himself popular, as evidenced in His rebuke to the church at Laodicea for being "luke-warm". Revelations 3:15-16.

The word "love" is widely bandied-about in our day, to mean many different things to many different people. Jesus Christ is the Real Deal because He requires a higher standard of love to people from His followers, than is popular with the rest of the world. Matthew 5:43-48. It is popular, to just love those who love us. But Jesus put His standard higher, by saying His followers are nothing extraordinary to love like that. Thieves, harlots, tax-collectors and publicans do likewise. Jesus actually told His followers to love their enemies--something which goes strongly against the grain of morally-corrupt and fallen human nature.

All too many Christian churches today preach the gospel of a "cheap grace". Jesus Christ, contrary to popular belief, warned His followers that they will be judged by the same standard of judgement, by which they judge other people, and will not be given a "blank check" of unconditional forgiveness for their sins. Matthew 6:12, 14-15; Matthew 7:1-5. The Lord's prayer: "....forgive us our sins, (to the same measure) as we forgive those who sin against us..."

Finally, Jesus Christ is the Real Deal because He commands His followers to demonstrate to the world by their actions, their fidelity to Him. Matthew 7:15-27. To whom little is given, little is required; but to whom much is given, much is required. Luke 12:43-48. Upon His return to earth, Jesus Christ will punish the most severely not those who know nothing of Him, but those who know Him well, but do not act affirmatively upon His divine mandates and teachings. To be sure, the Bible believer is not saved by any good works on his own initiative. They are instead saved unto the good works, to perform them, once saved, as visual evidence to the world of their salvation. Men do not light candles, only to hold them under bushel-baskets.

In summary, Jesus Christ is the Real Deal because He stands out uniquely from the many almost-similar fakers, liars and pretenders of His era. Had He been just another one of them, His gospel would have been completely discredited and forgotten centuries ago before the life-time of this BLOG's author. Baloney does have its shelf life-time.

-LKM