WWJD VS. WDJD

Do you remember those WWJD bracelets? Remember how "cool" they were? You could get them in any color. I had blue and orange ones for the Denver Broncos and wore them when I was in middle school. Not to mention, it was when the Broncos won their two Super Bowls with John Elway at the helm. They were quite a fashion statement and everyone had them. In fact, you were out of the loop if you didn't have one. I remember people saying things like; "when I look at my bracelet it reminds me of how Jesus would act." Okay......really?

Now, I don't want to be overly critical and mean, but come on, someone got rich off of these things and the popular WWJD or What Would Jesus Do formula has led a lot of people astray. It is actually based off of classical theological Liberalism. The old idea that if we just live like Jesus and be kind, tolerant, and concerned for social justice then everything will be great. If we just help a few more people and smile at everyone and do good, then we have it figured out. But is that what saves us? Are we saved by being like Jesus? Are we saved by doing what we think he might do in some situation? What about feeding the hungry or being concerned about AIDS or civil rights? Is not that the gospel? Keep reading!

The answer to the last question is the biggest NO in the world. Its a million times NO, NO, NO! What then should a better formula look like? WDJD or What Did Jesus Do? Or we can say, what has Jesus accomplished on our behalf. The gospel is not imitating Christ or trying to be like him or being nice and tolerant. It isnt being concerned about AIDS and civil rights. It is the historic fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and Son of Man died in our place on a Roman Cross. He took the punishment for our sin. We can not be like him or do what we think he would in a given situation. We cannot obey the law! We cannot do good at all! Therefore, he obeyed the law in it's entirety and went to the cross and shed his blood on our behalf. Listen to what J. Gresham Machen says in his great work Christianity and Liberalism,
“According to Christian belief, Jesus is our Savior, not by virtue of what He said, not even by virtue of what He was, but by what He did. He is our savior, not because He has inspired us to live the same kind of life that He lived, but because He took upon Himself the dreadful guilt of our sins and bore it instead of us on the cross. Such is the Christian conception of the Cross of Christ.” Nuff said!


Seth
Soli Deo Gloria!

Machen, J. Gresham (1923). Christianity and Liberalism. WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Grand Rapids, Michigan