Not Even Jesus

Dear Evangelicals:

In John 6:44, Jesus says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."

In John 14:6, He says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

But, in Matthew 18:3, He says something I never noticed before, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. That's it, above, in the yellow box.

What Jesus is saying is, it doesn't matter if He and God work a symbiotic miracle to bring you before them both. If your attitude is wrong, if your heart is hard and cynical, if your beliefs are calcified because they're endorsed by earthly powers or shored up by your church seniority, you won't make it into God's kingdom. 

If you insist on doing things without asking Him which way is right -- the way a child would ask a wise and loving parent -- you're lost. If you don't trust Him to break you down and build you back up again, to scrub out the poison of false teaching, "you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Yikes.

Now, before you go contemplating stripping yourself spiritually naked in front of yet another fallible human -- me included -- don't. Here's why:

In Hebrews 8:10-11, God says He, and not other humans will teach us, a point echoed in 1 John 2:27. In John 15:5, Jesus tells us, "Without Me, you can do nothing" -- a reminder that helps me get back to that childlike attitude when I get too bitter.

And, when we're in trouble, Paul writes in Hebrews 4:14-16, we are entitled to come boldly before the throne of grace, because Jesus, our high priest receives us without an intermediary. He was tempted in every way that we are, and He understands intimately what we're going through.

There are some cynical, horrible professing Christians out there who would presume to teach you. Some of them lied/are lying outright. Some of them were taught false doctrines, and never bothered to verify them through prayer and study because they trusted their teachers -- or feared them. Some of them are predators.

Jesus is not like any of them. He is gentle and patient, a friendly teacher who meets you on your level. He lets the little things go, but doesn't hesitate to correct you definitively when you get stubborn and insistent. He doesn't gossip about you. He doesn't force you to compete for love, acceptance, or anything else.

Don't believe me. Go to Him. If I have anything to teach you, it is this: First, last, and always, go to Him.