The Original Jesus: Trading the Myths We Create for the Savior Who Is

By Daniel Darling and Russell Moore

From hit songs to bumper stickers to eye-black, Jesus is trending high wherever you look. But at the end of the day, many "try Jesus" and come away disappointed in the experience. That's because the Jesus of popular culture looks much more like us than the God-man who appeared in the flesh two thousand years ago. We've got Guru Jesus, Braveheart Jesus, Dr. Phil Jesus, Free-Range Jesus, and plenty more imposters that feed into our selfish desires. The problem is, they don't have the power to save us or transform us into new creations. Luckily, it doesn't have to be that way.

The Original Jesus calls readers back to the Jesus who demands our worship--the potter who molds us, the clay. Seekers, skeptics, and sojourners in the way of faith will see Jesus for who he really is: God in the flesh, calling us to surrender our very lives that we may truly live. Foreword by Russell Moore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781493400522

Daniel Darling

Daniel Darling is an award-winning writer, author, and Christian leader whose public profile expanded exponentially as a result of being the subject of national news stories, including coverage by NBC News, Christianity Today, CNN, the Associated Press, and other outlets for his appeal to unity in the midst of adversity. He is a regular guest on national television, including Morning Joe, CNN, and Fox News, as well as CBN. He is a regular contributor to USA Today and a columnist for World magazine, and his work has also been featured by the Washington Post, National Review, Christianity Today, the Gospel Coalition, and the Washington Times. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Dignity Revolution, A Way with Words, and The Characters of Christmas. Dan hosts the weekly podcast The Way Home, leads the Land Center for Cultural Engagement, and speaks at churches and conferences around the country. He and his wife, Angela, have four children and reside in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

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© 2015 by Daniel Darling

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2015

Ebook corrections 10.01.2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-0052-2

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007

Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations labeled Message are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

If you have questions, or even frustrations, about the person of Jesus Christ—this book is for you. It cuts through our society’s confusing and contradictory opinions about Jesus to find the glorious, wonderful reality of him spread throughout the pages of Scripture.

Jim Daly, president, Focus on the Family

This is a good book. It is well written and, in fact,  a delightful read. It is biblically and theologically rich. It is also insightful and convicting. It will make some of you mad. Good! Hopefully God will use that to expose some areas of your life that need to be transformed and changed by his penetrating Word.

Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC

In a world of cheap imitations of the gospel and false portraits of the Savior, Dan Darling’s work makes me yearn to know better the biblical Jesus—the Savior who demands we worship him for who he is, not what we want him to be. And in that worship, we discover the true Jesus is even better than the false versions we construct. Read and be refreshed.

Trevin Wax, managing editor, The Gospel Project; author of Counterfeit Gospels, Clear Winter Nights, and Gospel-Centered Teaching

"Remaking Jesus in our own image has been a problem for two millennia, but the abundant varieties of ‘(fill in the blank) Jesus’ are especially pronounced in today’s postmodern iWorld. Dan Darling’s The Original Jesus offers an excellent, needed corrective, dispelling prominent Jesus myths with biblical clarity and witty wisdom. Darling reminds us that the Jesus who is far exceeds any Jesus we might want or imagine." 

Brett McCracken, author of Gray Matters and Hipster Christianity

"As fallen, finite people, we can’t help but re-create Jesus according to our fallen, finite understandings. Yet, if we are to worship the Creator rather than the creation, we must strive to distinguish the Jesus of God’s Word from the one cast in our own image. If you want to sort out the false Jesus of our culture from the true Jesus of the Bible, then you will want to read this book. The Original Jesus gathers up the fragments of our modern-day images of Jesus and begins—through faithful adherence to Scripture—to bond them back together."

Karen Swallow Prior, PhD, author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist

This book is dedicated to the thoughtful scholars

whose faithful exposition of the Scriptures

have helped me more closely see

the real Jesus of Scripture:

D. A. Carson, Russell Moore,

and Tim Keller.

Contents

Cover    1

Title Page    2

Copyright Page    3

Endorsements    4

Dedication    5

Foreword by Russell Moore    9

Acknowledgments    11

Introduction: Play-Doh Jesus    13

1. Guru Jesus    17

2. Red-Letter Jesus    34

3. Braveheart Jesus    48

4. American Jesus    58

5. Left-Wing Jesus    73

6. Dr. Phil Jesus    92

7. Prosperity Jesus    106

8. Post-Church Jesus    117

9. BFF Jesus    132

10. Legalist Jesus    143

Notes    155

Back Cover    161

Foreword

Many Christians could easily just buy a golden Buddha from a flea market, affix a brown beard to it, and call it Jesus. This little idol would have as much resemblance to the living Son of God as the mental constructions we so often piece together and call Jesus in our lives. The truth is, in our flesh, most of us don’t want to follow Jesus. We want Jesus to follow us—answering a prayer now and then, rescuing us from a catastrophe here and there, and helping us achieve the goals we’ve set for ourselves. The actual living, breathing Jesus of Nazareth doesn’t do any of that.

If the disciples of old had constructed Jesus the way we too often do, Matthew’s Jesus would have enabled him to be the most prosperous tax collector in the Roman Empire. Simon’s Jesus would have summoned up a mess of fish when needed for the catch but wouldn’t have talked about gruesome realities such as crucifixion. Jesus didn’t fulfill their life plans. He wrecked their lives and then remodeled them into new creations, new creations that usually had nothing to do with their hopes and plans for themselves. This is still the way Jesus rules.

In this book, Dan Darling examines the sorts of alternative visions of Jesus so often presented within American church culture. He takes these models before the living Christ as revealed in Scripture, and like Dagon of old, they fall headfirst before him and smash apart (see 1 Sam. 5:1–5). Darling is more than an idol smasher, though. He points out in this book why each of these pictures of Jesus resonates with us. Sometimes it’s because there’s an element of truth in these pictures. Sometimes it’s because our picture of Jesus tells us what we’re afraid of or how we’ve accommodated to the pattern of our ambient culture. In any case, he doesn’t leave us with critique. He takes us again and again to the cross, to the empty tomb, to the right hand of God.

If we’re honest, we’re all too often disappointed—even angered—by the Jesus who is, when he replaces the Jesus we want. We’re in good company. Jesus’s hometown synagogue wanted Hometown Jesus to heal their diseases, fight off their enemies, and get out of the way (Luke 4:14–30). The disciples wanted a Jesus who would replace Caesar on Rome’s throne but not a Jesus who would replace their egos from their psyches’ thrones. We’re like that too. We want a Messiah who will do what comedian Jack Handey said of himself: The first thing was, I learned to forgive myself. Then, I told myself, ‘Go ahead and do whatever you want, it’s okay by me.’

But when we come face-to-face with Christ Jesus himself—incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, transfigured in light—we will find ourselves dropping our idols and saying with our forefathers, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68–69). This book will help get us to that point. And that’s a good place to be.

Russell Moore

Acknowledgments

Every book is collaboration, and this one is no different. First, I’m grateful for my beautiful and patient wife and my longsuffering children who endured yet another book project.

I’m grateful for our ERLC team, for their kind encouragement, their willingness to proofread this book, and their courage to recommend changes. I’m honored to work alongside you for the kingdom.

I’m grateful for my gifted and godly boss, Dr. Russell Moore, who was so kind to risk his reputation and write a foreword for this book.

My heart is also full of thankfulness toward the Baker Books team who not only believed in this project but also put their full weight behind it to help shape it into the book God wants it to be. Every decision to publish, for a publisher, is a risk, and I pray to be worthy of your kindness with this endeavor.

Finally, I wish to thank my exceptional literary agent, Tamela Hancock Murray and the Steve Laube Agency. Thank you for guiding my publishing career and for opening doors most people only dream of.

Introduction

Play-Doh Jesus

Only if your God can outrage you and make you struggle will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination.

Tim Keller1

He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:15

The Bible doesn’t begin with epistemology, but with theology."

That loaded theological statement greeted me during the first hour of my very first seminary class. I was back in school, unlocking dormant brain cells after more than a decade of ministry and family life. My teacher was the legendary D. A. Carson, known for giving brilliant lectures. I was in for a weekly fire hose of sound theology.

The point he made that day has stuck in my cranium like a stubborn kernel of Illinois sweet corn in a back molar.

Here is a countercultural thought, even within conservative evangelical precincts: God’s revelation of himself to humankind doesn’t begin with what humans think or even know about God. It begins with a simple declaration in Genesis 1:1 of In the beginning, God . . .

God simply is. He’s self-existing, without need of anything we humans have to offer. To phrase it rather crudely, God isn’t like us. Yes, we were created in his image, after his likeness. But even at our best, even before Adam and Eve bit off more than they could chew in the Garden of Eden, God is nothing like the special creatures he created.

Yet we have in Jesus a God who, in his humanity, is rather like us. Christ is God with flesh on, and in his earthly life he experienced the full range of human experience. Christ is a God who could be touched, a God with scars, tears, and pain.

Jesus is quite popular. Even in our increasingly post-Christian culture, there are few places Jesus is not revered, if not hailed as a mascot for social causes. We have constructed a Christ in our own comfortable image. He has become the clay and we have assumed the role of potters. Guided by our delicate sensibilities, we mold Jesus into a deity we can handle, conformed to our own preferences.

We want a colorful Play-Doh Jesus we can shape and manipulate into something we choose. Drew Dyck wrote of this phenomenon, Inevitably we project our biases and wishes heavenward and end up with a god who looks suspiciously familiar, a god made in our own image. We end up bowing before the mirror.2

This is why, even after all of our soul-searching, navel-gazing, and experiments in spirituality, we mostly come away disappointed. Our self-worship has us looking in the mirror for salvation instead of looking to the real Jesus. We may not admit it on Sunday at church or even in our small groups during the week. We may not even write it down in our journals or tweet it out to the world. But deep down we’re upset at the God-man because he has not met all the expectations we had when we first entered this relationship with him by faith.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Jesus came to offer his people a life much better than the one we envision for ourselves. He came to rescue us from selfishness and despair, to call us to a new and different way. Following Jesus demands that we worship him for who he is, that we step off the cardboard throne we’ve erected and surrender to his kingship over our lives. He is the potter, we are the clay. It is his creative hand that molds us, re-creating and restoring what sin has destroyed, renewing us into a life of glory.

My aim with this book is pretty simple. I want to peel away the faux Jesus we’ve constructed and expose the real Jesus. This will not be a complete and scholarly Christology. Far wiser theologians with more initials after their names have written much weightier tomes. I commend their studies to you as you pursue Christ. My only goal is to help knock down some Jesus myths, our