In his 2010 book, If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus, Quaker pastor Philip Gulley offers a recipe for, well, making the Church Christian.  Richard Rohr thinks that the recipe is ‘superb’.  (Actually, if these two men are on the same page about what a desirable form of Christianity would look like, then I prefer Gulley’s more straightforward approach.  Rohr’s slipperiness is reflected in this wording…

‘Jesus is a model for living more than an object of worship’ (my emphasis)

…whereas Gulley says that if the church were ‘more Christian’:-

‘Jesus would be a model for living rather than an object of worship’ (my emphasis).

At least we know where we stand with Gulley.  In fact, he rejects the Virgin Birth, denies Jesus’ miracles, and doubts his sinlessness.  He thinks that ‘the church’s worship of Jesus is something he would not have favored.’  For Gulley, the idea that Jesus was divine was an invention of the later church, having evolved over several centuries.  It leads to the kind of religious exclusivity that has done so much harm in the world.  Rather, let us honour him as a model for living.

Michael Kruger responds:-

1. Jesus claimed to be more than a moral example

He was (and is) a moral example (See John 13:15, for example), but he was (and is) more than that.  The Gospel of John is the go-to place for Jesus’ self-awareness as divine (e.g, John 1:1; 1:18; 8:58; 10:30), but it is abundantly clear in the rest of the New Testament too.  One would have thought that the famous dictum of C.S.Lewis, that the option to claim that Jesus was just a great moral teacher bu not God is simply not open to us.

2.  Jesus’ followers worshiped him as Lord

While retaining their Jewish monotheism, they gave him worship – and he accepted it.  See for example,

• Matt 2:11: Magi worship Jesus
• Matt 14:33: Disciples worship Jesus on the boat
• Matt 28:9; Luke 24:52: Disciples worship Jesus after resurrection
• John 9:38: Man born blind worships Jesus
• Phil 2:10: Every knee will bow in worship of the Lord Jesus
• Heb 1:6: Author says the even the angels worship Jesus
• Revelation: Virtually the entire book is about the worship of Jesus

As Kruger says:-

3.  Jesus’ moral example is binding only is he is Lord

Why should we follow Jesus’ moral example (especially in the light of some things that he said and did that any self-respecting ‘progressive Christian’ must find very unpalatable)?  And is it not such ‘progressive Christians’ who regard morality as culturally conditions and ever-changing anyway?  And do progressive Christians even try to consistently follow Jesus’ moral teaching?

4.  Christianity is not centred on moralism anyway

It is not, first of all, about our love for God and others, but God’s love for us (1 John 4:10).  It is not a religion of works, but of grace.  It does not begin (to use Machen’s terminology) in the imperative mood, but with a triumphant indicative.

Was Jesus a great moral teacher?  Yes!  But his moral teaching only works when we recognise and worship him as Lord.