“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him,” — Isaiah 53:2 (NIV).
The world we live in today is a very consumer driven world. Everything is marketed toward us in a way to make us desire it. We have commercials on TV that show us the latest product that we simply cannot live without. If we just purchase this tool, cleaning supply or product, our work will be cut in half or our lives will be so much easier. We are sold beauty products, weight loss pills, diets and machines that will all make us look our youngest or be in the best shape of our lives.
This world lives on beauty. Whether it be another human being we are attracted to or a product that is just too good to be true, everything around us is designed to be attractive and to catch our eye.
It seems that a lot of times churches fall into this same mindset when getting the message of Jesus to the world.
We know Jesus is good for everyone, we know the world would be a better place if everyone trusted and followed Jesus. So, we make him as attractive as we possibly can to make more people follow Him. The problem with that is that many times in order to make Jesus seem more attractive to people, we end up creating a false Jesus and while many people may want to follow that false Jesus, we are no better off following a false Jesus than we are not following Jesus at all.
The power of Jesus is not in his attractiveness, it is in His message. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” The reason we should surrender our lives to Jesus and live for His teaching is because the power of Gospel, not because He is attractive to us in some way.
The Gospel is this: We are a sinful people, meaning we don’t live up to God’s standard. Due to our sin, we cannot have a relationship with a holy sinless God. But, Jesus came to this earth and died on a cross as our substitute, He took God’s punishment in our place. And if we put our faith in Him for our restored relationship with God, our sins will be forgiven and our relationship restored.
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