a little on the reality of Jesus and people’s inability to accept it.

A little on the reality of Jesus and people’s inability to accept it.

A real Jesus means that Jesus really and truly did do all the things he said he did, and still didn’t sin. As long as people believe it is impossible to keep free from sin, they will have trouble with Jesus.

A lot of the problem goes back to an old philosophy called the stoic philosophy. It was based on the idea that the body was evil and the mind would be good if it could only be freed from the demands of the body.

That philosophy has been around in almost every culture, including your own native American culture. Much fasting and a lot of self-denial, combined with other forms of self-torture and after a while, the mind can finally be freed from the flesh. The only problem with this philosophy is that the body is not evil.

Human nature is bent towards evil because of weakness, but the body itself is not evil. And the mind is not necessarily good. You know what kinds of evil a mind can imagine. Besides, it was Jeremiah who wrote,

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. (Jeremiah 17:9)

There is no way that the mind can be good without the leavening and saving influence of Jesus Christ and his grace. It is no better than the body.

That is one reason Jesus came. He became a kind of stamp of approval on humanity, as such.

He had a body and was subject to its demands as we are, just without sin. He also had a mind with none of the thoughtcrime that people are so bent towards. He had enough of that fusion of God and man that he was able to overcome the evil nature that the body looked toward.

It is good to have your body in subjection, it is good to fast and deny yourself things in the pursuit of mastery over your body for his sake; but your body is not something evil to be brutally punished like the old monks who would whip themselves every night and kneel in the snow for hours to pray or wear shirts with the hair side turned in so they would always be uncomfortable. That is foolishness and is a vanity of its own.

The idea that you alone can master your body is idolatry of sorts, the putting of yourself and your abilities over Jesus and his grace.