Jesus is all you need

Following on with the theme of 'measured and balanced responses' I'd like to touch on an issue that is beginning to trouble me as increasingly I hear people preach a theology that says, 'Jesus is all you need.' The problem is that I totally agree with the words and yet the reality that is seeks to deliver causes me problems - and that's where the problems begin.

I believe that Jesus is 'all we need' but when people preach that when we speak of  then 'Word of God' we means Jesus and Jesus is all we need so the Bible is secondary to our faith. Extend this further and consider some of the sermons I have heard where the words, 'Jesus is all we need and He tells us to love everyone regardless of who, what or how they live! We don't need the old laws and traditions, we just need to love and accept everyone.'

One of the problems with this sort of error is that it takes words or concepts and deviates, corrupts, adds or diminishes that which is solid and secure so that to disagree is to end up saying, 'I don't believe Jesus is all-sufficient!' Now that's something to leave you labelled as someone who is not quite right and this is their intention, because then that which is wrong appears right and those who are right appear wrong. Now whose works does this sound like I wonder?

Discussing this with a colleague (and friend) their response was that this was a response to the Bibliolatry that is found these days. Indeed it appears to be a reactionary move to move away from the reliance on, and pointing to, the Bible on a number of issues. The many people who engage in the terrible art of prooftexting and those who seek to do more than point to the truth contained within in it (or decide to ignore it) all leave the word of God impotent and abused.

Jesus IS the Word of God (Logos) and the Bible is the word of God (logos) and we need the latter to illuminate the former (Jesus) as fully man, God, Christ and Messiah and to proclaim His message of love and His reconciling and atoning act that is the cross, His ascension and the coming of His Holy Spirit. I don't believe you can fully look to Jesus as being all-sufficient and not want to find out more about Him and God's dealings with people as found in the written word and without the written word cannot understand or follow the true Jesus but end up with a Jesus made in your own image (or worse still, in the image of someone who, puppet like, gives approval to that which it is obvious Jesus never approved of).

Jesus came to fulfil all the law and the prophets - this doesn't mean that having come these can now be binned in a 'job done' sort of way. It means that Jesus kept the laws and upheld the moral values and teaching of the Old Testament and to distance Him from the Bible is to create error.

It's as foolish as those who tell us that we can never 'outgrace' God so why try to live by foolish teachings and philosophies (from the Apostle Paul and others) when instead you can live under Grace and 'live life to the full'

I am reminded of the words from Godspell:

'After you've got your converts you make them. Twice as fit for hell! As you are yourselves!'

Beware the Blind guides and the blind fools!