Creed: Part Two – Jesus Christ

“I believe… in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Lord…” – from the Apostles’ Creed

No other individual has been ridiculed and mocked more than Jesus. He is the cornerstone rejected by many, yet we build our lives on Him (MT 21:42, ACTS 4:11). His name has been used more than any other – as both blessing and curse, in expletive and exaltation. Just this week I saw numerous ads making a mockery of Jesus. While this is upsetting, it is also becoming more prevalent. The spirit of anti-Christ is already rampant in the world. It’s a spirit of hate and rage and “freedom of speech as long as it’s my freedom to say what I want and you just shut up.” It’s a spirit that asks questions because they want to argue, not because they want answers. Jesus was skilled at dealing with these type of questions. People often came to him asking with hidden motives. When that happened, he usually answered the question with a question. “Answer this and I will answer you…”  It was not uncommon for them to be painted into a corner.

Emmanuel Fellowship Church calls these “precision questions” and points out 29 times Jesus used them in the gospels (http://mondaymorningreview.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/jesus-answering-questions-with-questions/). Such is the clarity of Jesus. Above all others, He was (and is) able to cut to the chase, to get past the smoke screen, to rip through the veil and to go straight to the heart of the matter. He will still do this in our lives if we let Him. He will clear up our confusions and un-muddle our motives. He will go to the root of the problem.

Questions flood the earth today. We will be called upon to give an answer for our hope (1 PETER 3:15). When that happens, I pray we all have the clarity and simplicity of Christ (2 COR 11:3) and that we aren’t pulled by ulterior motives or questions asked to set traps. May our lives boldly and clearly point straight to Jesus and cut through all the convoluted confusion of the culture. This is our creed, the rock of what we believe. Built on the chief cornerstone of Jesus Christ.