A Lenten Reflection

I’ve recently started reading The New Testament and the People of God by NT Wright, a book which I am long overdue to read. I don’t dare attempt a review of it, but I will post snippets here and there and provide a little commentary from time to time over the next few weeks or however long it takes me to finish the book.

I felt that this first quote, in addition to being insightful, was also particularly appropriate to ponder and expand upon during lent.

The Christological question, as to whether the statement ‘Jesus is God’ is true, and if so in what sense, is often asked as though ‘God’ were the known and ‘Jesus’ the unknown; this, I suggest, is manifestly mistaken. If anything, the matter stands the other way around (xv).

The Jesus we see in the gospels is the clearest and most tangible presentation of God that we have. The goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to God, to bear his image as purely as possible. Jesus lived and died to redeem others. He died for you, he died for me, and he died for millions around the world. This is the image that we too should reflect. While our life and death cannot be redemptive in the same way Jesus’ was, it still can and must be redemptive. We must be willing to lay down our lives in our local communities for others, inside and outside the body of Christ, to display what God looks like and ultimately help them (and us!) move closer to God.