You Cannot Compare Anyone or Anything to Jesus

This fall I posted my review of The Wonder-Working God by Jared Wilson. Today I share an extended quote contrasting many culturally-acceptable false gods with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the glory of Christ from these words soak into your soul and drive you to worship:

The god of the prosperity gospelists is a pathetic doormat, a genie. The god of the cutesy coffee mugs and Joel Osteen* tweets is a milquetoast doofus like the guys in the Austen novels you hope the girls don’t end up with, holding their hats limply in hand and minding their manners to follow your lead like a butler–or the doormat he stands on.

The god of the American dream is Santa Claus.

The god of the open theists is not sovereignly omniscient, declaring the end from the beginning, but just a really good guesser playing the odds.

The god of our therapeutic culture is ourselves, we, the “forgivers” of ourselves, navel-haloed morons with “baggage” but not sin.

None of these pathetic gods could provoke fear and trembling.

But the God of the Scriptures is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24)…He stirs up the oceans with the tip of his finger, and they sizzle rolling clouds of steam into the sky. He shoots lightning with his fists. This is the God who leads his children by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. This is the God who makes war, sends plagues, and sits enthroned in majesty and glory in his heavens, doing what he pleases.

This is the God who, in the flesh, turned tables over in the temple as if he owned the place. This Lord God Jesus Christ was pushed to the edge of the cliff and declared, “This is not happening today,” and walked right back through the crowd like a boss. This Lord says, “No one takes my life; I give it willingly,” as if to say, “You couldn’t kill me unless I let you.” This Lord calms the storms, casts out demons, binds and looses, and has the authority to grant us the ability to do the same. The devil is this God’s lapdog.

And it is this God who has summoned us, apprehended us, saved us. It is this God who has come humbly, meekly, lowly, pouring out his blood in infinite conquest to set the captives free, cancel the record of debt against us, conquer sin and Satan, and swallow up death forever.

We serve an awesome God who is in every way better than we could ever imagine Joel Osteen’s god or Santa Claus to be. No matter what you currently think of this God, I can guarantee you that He is better than your wildest dreams. Seek Him and worship Him today.

**(Here is a helpful explanation of why Joel Osteen’s god is different than the God of the Bible.)

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