“The Other Jesus”

Who is this other Jesus? He is not a dif­fer­ent Jesus. Rather, He is the for­got­ten, neglected, over­looked Jesus.

This other Jesus is often a strager to our self-concerned, nar­cis­sis­tic, “me” gen­er­a­tion. He’s not the Jesus we’ve cre­ated of our own mak­ing and faking—an easy-going, good-natured Jesus who’s on call when we want Him to help us deal ith our per­sonal agenda. Hav­ing only this cul­tur­al­ized, benev­o­lent, but some­what weak “errand-boy” Jesus stunts our spir­i­tual growth. “It’s a sniv­el­ling mod­ern inven­tion,” says Shaw, “for which there is no war­rant in the Gospels.”

The other Jesus is the Bib­li­cal Jesus—the robust, chal­leng­ing Jesus, who is more than just a com­forter. He also con­fronts us, and He will not accept sec­ond place in our lives. He calls us to the exhil­a­rat­ing adven­ture of dynamic dis­ci­ple­ship. Though He meets us as we are, He loves us too much to leave as we’ve been.
Lloyd J. Ogilvie, “The Other Jesus” (pgs. 13–14)