Have you ever caught yourself treating Jesus like a wonderful starting point, only to immediately start piling your own personal accessories on top of Him? It is an age-old habit.
C. S. Lewis observed that the most subtle dangers facing the church rarely come as blatant rejections of the faith; rather, they arrive as quiet, well-meaning additions. He coined the phrase “Christ and…” to describe that lingering impulse to treat Jesus as essential, yet somehow not quite enough on His own.
Take a look around our culture today, and you will spot these hyphenated faiths everywhere. We run into “Christ and Eastern mysticism” or “Christ and Buddhism,” where folks admire Jesus as a compassionate moral guide while adopting meditation techniques to discover inner enlightenment. We see “Christ and Islam,” where some try to smooth away the unique scandal of the cross to fit comfortable pluralism. Just as often, our add-ons put on modern, intellectual clothes: “Christ and academic philosophy,” where divine truth gets squeezed into secular fashion, or “Christ and scientism,” where empirical data becomes the supreme judge of the supernatural.
The list continues right into our daily routines and church foyers. There is “Christ and politics,” which rapidly demotes the Prince of Peace into an ideological banner for partisan power. We encounter “Christ and pop psychology,” where the pursuit of self-esteem quietly crowds out authentic repentance, and “Christ and the prosperity gospel,” which treats the living Lord like a cosmic vending machine designed for financial comfort. Perhaps the sneakiest snare of all is “Christ and moralism”—the deeply religious delusion that our personal rule-keeping, determination, and spiritual checklists secure our standing before the Father. Whenever we tie an “and” to Jesus, we unintentionally demote the Savior of the world to an accessory in our salvation. Real faith refuses to be blended into a syncretistic smoothie. Authentic Christianity is Christ alone, and every true blessing flows exclusively from Him.
Long before the apostles took the gospel to the nations, the Lord was warning against the foolishness of trading Him for hollow substitutes: “For my people have done two evils: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” (Jeremiah 2:13 NLT). God’s heart has always been to pour out His unearned, pursuing grace upon weary souls, calling them away from the exhaustion of manufactured spirituality: “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food” (Isaiah 55:1–2 NLT).
The New Testament sounds that exact same alarm whenever human traditions threaten to encroach upon the cross. Writing to believers tempted to mix gospel truth with esoteric philosophies and legalistic rules, Paul writes: “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:8–10 NLT).
Because we are already made complete in Him, God is never scouting for self-reliant superstars who bank on their natural pedigrees or cultural clout. He turns the world’s priorities on their head: “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, ‘If you want to boast, boast only in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:27–31 NLT).
Jesus leaves nothing out. Jesus is all we need. He is our right standing, our cleansing holiness, and our final deliverance from sin. Because God honors the freedom He created in us, He never forces this fullness upon us; He simply invites our willing surrender. He told us so in His own words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NLT).
When we abandon all our cracked cisterns and rest in Christ alone, there is no limit to what His grace can do through us. Let’s give up all the fluff and frippery and rely on Christ alone.
Blessings on you and yours,
Jim Black
P.S. if you’d like to read previous ruminations of mine they can be found at https://blog.salvationarmyconcordca.org
Quoted Scriptures • Jeremiah 2:13 (NLT) • Isaiah 55:1–2 (NLT) • Colossians 2:8–10 (NLT) • 1 Corinthians 1:27–31 (NLT) • John 14:6 (NLT)