Jesus was NOT a good man (?)

Met another Chinese lady on Valentine's Day. She (S) is a high school pupil with excellent English doing year 11. She has a Christian mother.

I asked S about the Christian faith and she said openly that she wasn't a Christian. It seemed then I got a prompt to ask her about Jesus and she told me she believed he was a good man.

A good man? Just a good man? I missed a golden opportunity to follow up here (but the shop was busy and S was there to help for the day).

Jesus Was NOT a good man

Of course, all Christians believe he was good but Jesus was far more than just a good man. He was the Christ that the righteous in Jewry were looking for and that the unrighteous shamefully rejected. Moreover, he was the Son of God (Jn 3.16f).

Later, I thought about C. S. Lewis' comment that you can call Jesus many things but you can't say he was a 'good man' because this 'good man' accepted the title of the Son of God on various occasions (e.g., Jn 10.36-38). But good men tell the truth and if this man accepted the title of the Son of God (e.g., Matt 26.63-64) then he cannot be good. He was either deluded or a liar.

With his disciples he asked, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' (Matt 16.15-17). After getting the answers of 'John the Baptist', 'Elijah', 'Jeremiah', 'one of the prophets', he then asked the most important question for that age and this: 'But who do you say that I am?' 

Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God' (Matt 16.16). In his response, Jesus not only accepted that Peter was correct but said that Peter's answer had been revealed to him by 'My Father who is in heaven' (Matt 16.17).

Interestingly, Jesus didn't go around saying He was the Son of God very often. (But then neither does the Prime Minister of a country do so either because everyone knows it to be so and acts on the basis that it is so.) But the New Testament is pervaded with the understanding that in Jesus, God's Unique Son has come to earth and been called the Son of God by God at his birth, baptism and transfiguration. (See here.)

The Gospel for Buddhists (3): Liberation

The Buddhist religion begins with doctrines known as the Four Noble Truths*. The first noble truth is that human existence is unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), that is, 'things are not as they should be'. (Even the happiest of times will end and hence, they too are unsatisfactory.) And life is that way because we crave and cling to what are the impermanent things and ideas of this life.

One author suggests that dukkha is derived from the image of riding in a horse-drawn vehicle where an ungreased axle on one side of the buggy is causing occupants to become nauseous through its lack of proper movement. No wonder humans feel uneasy and even despair at times as they ride in the buggy of normal life!

However, the way out of this unsatisfactoriness of life exists which consists in the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. You will note in the graphic presented that it is a series of eight 'rights'. Right (correct) 'view', 'intention', 'speech', 'action', 'livelihood', 'effort', 'mindfulness', 'concentration'.

Buddhism, it should be noted, is not just a series of doctrines nor is it a matter of believing certain things. Buddhism is a way-of-life, a practice for true living. Hence, great stress is laid upon the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path.

And the reason for why anyone would want to practice these things is to be liberated from dukkha through an enlightenment or 'an awakening' which means that one sees reality for what it really is.

Enlightenment as Liberation from Dukkha

When the Buddha started to wander around India shortly after his enlightenment, he encountered several men who recognized him to be a very extraordinary being. They asked him: "Are you a god?" "No," he replied. "Are you a reincarnation of god?" "No," he replied."Are you a wizard, then?" "No." "Well, are you a man?" "No." "So what are you?" They asked, being very perplexed.  Buddha simply replied: "I am awake." Buddha means “the awakened one.” How to awaken is all he taught.

-Buddhist teaching
 
Enlightenment means to be liberated from dukkha: but what does that liberation actually mean? What happens to the seeker who practises this way and experiences this awakening which liberates?

According to Buddhism, uninitiated people are 'asleep' in a trance of ignorance. Their ignorance revolves around their lack of knowing the nature of the things around them and knowing what they are.

Their ignorance is found in their lack of knowing that every thing around them is conditioned and dependent on some thing else with no thing being eternal or permanent. Every thing comes into existence for a time and then ceases to exist.

Buddhist Liberation means Losing the 'I'

And what about us? Buddha said that we too are conditioned and dependent; we do not have immortal or eternal souls or selves.

Although it's all right to use the sentence 'I am walking' with 'I' in it as 'a way of speaking' after enlightenment we realise that no 'I' exists as a permanent reality. So, Buddhist enlightenment (at least for many schools) is being awakened to the conditioned and dependent reality of the 'I'. When the 'I' is experienced in this way, dukkha is no longer suffered. 

This 'awakening' is not primarily intellectual but achieved through the practice of the Eightfold Path.
  

A Christian Pathway

One thing that sets Buddhism and Christianity apart is the theistic basis of Christianity. Only a surface reading of Buddhist material is needed to realise that no god is talked about who is related to creaturely existence in any way. Whereas, in the Christian faith, God is the Father, Almighty, who made heaven and earth and who is met in Jesus Christ, his only Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The other clear difference is that Buddhists 'work out their own salvation'. (No god or higher power works on their behalf.) Buddhism requires diligent practice to achieve enlightenment.

That said, some parallels exist between some of the terms of Buddhism and the Christian faith.

Christians would say that the Bible teaches that those outside of Christ who are not disciples of his, live in the spiritual darkness that envelops the world (Eph 6.12). This darkness, however, is not primarily one of ignorance. It is one of sin.

Sin is a prideful defiance of God the creator centred in the human heart. Such defiance and infidelity alienates us from God; it means we live under the judgement of God.

To remain in this darkness under the judgement of God is to suffer eternal loss of one's life (Jn 3.16b); to receive Christ Jesus as Saviour is to be 'enlightened' (Acts 26.18; 2 Cor 4.6; Eph 1.18) as to Who Christ is and what His benefits to us are. To believe in Christ Jesus as Saviour is to be freed from the threat of God's future anger and punishment of all unrighteousness (e.g., Jn 3.36; Rom 1.18).

But this enlightenment does not come after a long (or short) effort of good works or right living to produce it. It comes by GRACE, the favour of God to those who deserve punishment. 

Nevertheless, the operation of God's grace does not take place without an active believing (trusting) in Jesus as the Resurrected Lord (Rom 10.9). So, we are not passive in this process of salvation. For 'it is by grace you are/have been saved, through faith' (Eph 2.8a).

Christianity as Liberation from Sin

To believe/trust in Christ is to be set free from the penalty of death which is the eternal consequence of sin (Rom 6.23). The consequences of past sins -reaping what has been sown- may still be experienced but not the eternal punishment for their sin. 

Second, they are now being freed from the power of sin. For now the Spirit of God is within them setting them apart for God. The Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (e.g., Jn 14.17) and leads us into all the truth (Jn 16.13) about themselves and the world.

One of the evil powers of the old sin nature is its ability to focus us on ourselves; the sin nature we are born with gets us to live life self-centredly, ego-centredly. We are turned in upon our selves. What are we to do about that? Well, firstly we ought to meditate on what God in Christ has done on the cross for us.

A central feature of the crucifixion of Christ was that the 'old man' of all believers was crucified with Christ (Rom 6.6) in order that 'the body of sin might be destroyed [rendered ineffective] that forthwith we should not serve sin' (Rom 6.6b). 

The 'old man' is our old self, the one under the power of the 'world, the flesh and the devil' who was operating before God's regenerating grace re-birthed us. The cross dealt with that person and its deeds (Gal 5.19-24) at Calvary 2000 years ago (Rom 6.11).

But, although the old self was 'crucified with Christ', Christians must also put the old self's deeds to death (Rom 8.13). We do this by taking off the old self daily as if we were removing an old coat. Further to that, the disciplines of prayer, bible reading and fasting should be planed. 

Finally, we will be one day saved from the presence of sin itself when they go to be with Christ (2 Cor 5.1-8) who is seated at God's right hand (Rom 8.34; Heb 12.2).

Liberation for Good Works

Corresponding to the putting to the death of the old nature, we are to 'put on the new nature' (Col 3.10, 12) as if we are putting on a new garment.

Paul said that for him 'to live was Christ and to die was gain' (Phil 1.21) and the context suggests that Paul wants to glorify, honour and make known the name of Christ whether he (Paul) is alive or dead (Phil 1.20). Serving Christ Jesus is all Paul cares about (2 Cor 5.15, 20).

Good works are a feature of the Christian life because Christians follow the One who himself, 'went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil' (Acts 10.38). See also Titus 2.14, 3.8, 14.

Conclusion

Although knowing something about Buddhism is helpful in presenting Jesus as the Way to the Father God, I have come to the conclusion that what Buddhists need to hear is the message of salvation itself through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In speaking with Buddhists from mainland China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma, they will often present as people who are endeavouring to do good works towards their goal of enlightenment. Some may not even have much knowledge of their religion and what it teaches, being more nominal Buddhists.

They will tend to major, therefore, on 'ethics' and 'morals'. Of course, that emphasis itself can provide a contact-point for speaking to them about the gospel.

As we know, just good works in themselves cannot secure true enlightenment according to the Christian revelation. Only trusting in Jesus who died to redeem us from our sin nature can do that.  
  
*A form of 'Four Noble Truths' can be observed in all religions after a fashion. The first describes the present alienated state of mankind; the second, the cause; the third the hope of a way out; and the last the way out itself. Of course, distinctive religions propose different content for the 'noble truths' and more importantly, a conflicting but definitive notions of the source for their assured knowledge.

The Gospel for Buddhists (2): Contact-Point

Last time I indicated that I would look at the 'Pauline model' for evangelism of pagan Gentiles that he used in Athens at the Areopagus ('Mars' Hill', KJV) (Acts 17.16-34).

As is well known, Paul began his address by focussing on the spiritual state of the Athenians: their 'very religious' nature as evidenced by their altar, 'To an unknown god' (Acts 17.23, RSV). 

We can say that Paul's model was to find a 'contact-point' with Athenian worship for the gospel; this contact-point was the Athenian acknowledgement of 'an unknown god'. 

I want to use this concept of a contact-point with the religion* of those we speak to about the gospel; I do so because it is evident that trying to present the gospel to someone without some sort of contact-point as a bridge between the other and us risks an experience of disconnectedness and alienation for both persons.

Gospel Contact-Point with Buddhism: Desire

1) Buddhism and Desire

Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC) became dissatisfied with his life of luxury after unexpectedly discovering ageing, sickness and death, and turned to asceticism to discover the answer to suffering. However, although he practised extreme asceticism for six years that did not provide the answer.

He began to meditate under the now famous fig ('bodhi') tree and achieved enlightenment. He realised that suffering lay in the wrongful desire for transient things.

After the Buddha (the 'awakened one') reached 'enlightenment' he began to preach what he learned which revolved around suffering and desire: The Four Noble Truths.

1. Life means unease (or dukkha, a multifaceted word, often translated as 'suffering'); 'dukkha is our existence'
2. Unease is caused by desire, attachment, craving for the transient things and ideas in the world.
3. Extinguishing desire is attainable
4. The pathway is via self-improvement from practising The Noble Eightfold Path which finally leads to 'enlightenment'.

Buddhism understands dukkha (also rendered as: 'suffering', 'pain', 'stress', 'unpleasantness', 'dis-ease', 'unease', 'frustration', 'distress', 'sorrow', 'affliction', 'unsatisfactoriness' et al.) as inherent in the eternal birth-and-rebirth process of normal, human life. Man is born, ages, gets sick and dies; over and over again.

This present, repetitive cycle can only be broken free of through enlightenment into the liberation of nirvana where worldly things are understood for what they truly are and rebirth ceases to occur.

The desire spoken of in Buddhism seems to be wrong desire defined as 'unskilful'; that is, desire that leads us away from the path to nirvana. Hence, good desire is defined as 'skilful', meaning the desire that takes us to nirvana. 

A Buddhist writer, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, has summed up the Buddhist contentions regarding desire brilliantly in this passage:

All phenomena, the Buddha once said, are rooted in desire. Everything we think, say, or do — every experience — comes from desire. Even we come from desire. We were reborn into this life because of our desire to be. Consciously or not, our desires keep redefining our sense of who we are. Desire is how we take our place in the causal matrix of space and time. The only thing not rooted in desire is nirvana, for it's the end of all phenomena and lies even beyond the Buddha's use of the word "all." But the path that takes you to nirvana is rooted in desire — in skillful desires. The path to liberation pushes the limits of skillful desires to see how far they can go.

From this passage we can see what a large scope desire, skilful and unskilful, has in the Buddhist understanding.

2) Christianity and Desire

Buddhism and Christianity speak about desire but in contrastive ways. Buddhist practice revolves around extinguishing wrong desire because suffering is caused by wrong desire and the way then to end suffering is to eradicate craving. Christianity, on the other hand, does not revolve around extinguishing wrong desire so that a blessed state might be attained. 

Rather, it revolves around divine grace: God's unmerited favour to any who come to Him through Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 26.18; 2 Cor 5.21; Eph 2.8-9; Col 1.14). 

For Christianity, suffering became embedded in the human condition consequent to the unfaithfulness of Adam and Eve (Gen 3.1-6) to God's commands. And yes, Eve's wrong desires led her to involve her husband in the rebellion against God.

Christian revelation given in its holy Scriptures says that God then judged Adam and Eve and punished them for their wrongdoing AGAINST HIM. Their wrongdoing against him is judged as SIN which is a central theme of Christianity.

SIN calls for a powerful Redeemer to liberate man because sin is not just rebellious acts but a power that holds man in its demonic clutches at the core of his being. Of course, evil desires work to bring on sin (Jas 1.13-15).

When will this Redeemer, Deliverer and Saviour come is a major theme of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. God sent his only begotten Son (Jn 3.16) in 4-7 BC to deliver all mankind from sin (Titus 2.11-14).

Once a person has become a Christian, a new creation appears (2 Cor 5.17)! Christians are said to be seated in heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus (Eph 2.5-6; Col 2.12, 3.1-4).

Nevertheless, Christians as members of the Body of Christ still await the final resurrection and thus still struggle with temptation, evil desires (passions) leading to sinful actions. 

The Christian scriptures are filled with many warnings about the need to be vigilant about evil desires (2 Tim 2.22) to the point where Christians are called to 'kill' evil deeds (Rom 8.13; Col 3.5-11).

Conclusion

So Buddhism's identification of dukkha (unease, suffering, dissatisfaction) and its creation by clinging to the impermanent things of this life can be a contact-point for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Next time I plan to look at the use of liberation as a contact-point.   

*I appreciate that some Christian readers might view 'religion' as a negative term being equivalent to an allegiance to beliefs or a denomination rather than to the person of Christ Himself. However, 'religion' is mentioned in a positive way within the Christian scriptures (see Jas 1.26-27).