Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I would argue that saying "Jesus is the way to live" is meaningless because it ignores the specificity of the question/issue. It takes the focus off the question. That does not mean that, at some level, you can't say that the answer is consistent with Jesus. But to simply say "the answer is Jesus" is no better than saying that the answer is going to more meetings.
This is a lot like Lee's "grace is just Jesus" teaching. It removes the meaning of grace from the discussion. It masks any evidence that there actually is grace by ignoring it. That does not mean that Jesus is not grace. But it means that we understand the grace of Jesus by actually observing/experiencing that grace. Grace is something that is only realized when it is actually realized. If I "refuse grace and just take Jesus" (or something like that) I don't really know what I have. It is just something that I call Jesus. And I might be wrong.
And we find that Jesus is the way by discovering the actual, practical ways that are consistent with Jesus. With the scripture. With God's righteousness. Etc. We don't find it by just saying it is Jesus. That is the problem with over generalizations. Lee said everything was just the dispensing of God. So you don't have to obey. Just get dispensing. Just get Jesus as the way. Whatever that means.
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That all sounds pretty reasonable. But on the other hand, Paul could say something like "Christ in me the hope of glory" and it supposedly meant something. Or John of Patmos could say "I was in Spirit on the Lord's day" and apparently think that meant something. If these New Testament expressions have become too vague, general, meaningless, or idealized for us, maybe we have lost the "simplicity that is in Christ".