God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post on Romans we saw how Jesus is the very embodiment of righteousness. And we answered the question: Where does morality come from? If you’re interested, you can read more here: Where Does Morality Come From? (And My Heart’s Desire for You)–Romans 10:1-4.

In today’s post we’ll look at the way God has made Himself and Jesus so remarkably accessible to each of us.

Romans 10:5-8

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

Where Can We Find God and His Word?

For weeks now, I’ve been dreading writing on this passage of scripture because I didn’t understand what on earth Paul could mean, when he wrote that we should not say in our hearts, “Who will ascend into heaven?” and “Who will descend into the abyss?” I found a number of teachings on these verses but, with all due respect to a bunch of Bible teachers who are all way smarter than I am, everything I read and heard seemed off the cuff as it were. Finally, after much searching (and anguish) I discovered some brilliant commentary by Scott Hahn on this passage.

It turns out Paul is paraphrasing from Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy chapter 30 God tells us:

 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

Obviously Paul took some artistic license here, but it’s equally obvious what he writes in Romans 10 is a reference to, and built upon, Deuteronomy 30.

And what I love about it is how Paul is emphasizing how amazingly accessible God has made Himself to us. This is in stark contrast to the religious traditions surrounding the Jews and the early Christians, and plenty more that they weren’t even aware of. In Greek myth, Prometheus had to steal fire and the knowledge of how to make it from the gods because they would not give it to mankind. There’s also the story of Orpheus, who had to descend into the realm of Hades to try to convince him to bring Euridice back to life after her untimely death, and plenty of other underworld quests besides that. Poets believed that they had to beg the Muses for inspiration, and maybe they’d get it if the gods were in a good mood. Jews and early Christians living in and around Greece would’ve heard these stories constantly, so the references made both in Romans and in Deuteronomy would be crystal clear to them.

Outside of the Diaspora, though there are stories in Norse myth about Odin, who hung himself on the World Tree for nine days as a self-sacrifice in order to gain divine knowledge. The Mesopotamians’ Epic of Gilgamesh describes the titular character journeying across the world to find the secret to eternal life, only to have the gods snatch it away from him as soon as he finds it. Polynesian myth even has its own parallel to Prometheus with Maui, who also steals fire from the gods because they refuse to share it. There are myths the world over that reinforce this impassable gap between God and Man, how distant and guarded the divine is, how insignificant they deem us to be.

And yet, the true God does not operate this way at all. Sure, there is a huge gap between God and Man. But we don’t have to make an arduous grueling trek to the corners of the universe, whether that’s up to heaven or down into the abyss, to close it.

Instead, what we find is that God and His word is near to us, because of Jesus. God became a human being and experienced life here on earth with all its hardships, temptations, and suffering: just the same as you and me.

So because Love itself walked among us, spoke with us face-to-face, broke bread with us, physically touched us:

Because of His nearness:

We can know Jesus and we can know God intimately. We find Him in the Gospels. We find Him when our nose is in the carpet desperate in prayer because of suffering. We find Him when we’re filled with thanksgiving for His presence. We find Him when we’re filled with gratitude for His blessings. We find Him in the faces of the people on the margins who we serve in the name of Jesus. We don’t have to ascend into heaven or descend into the abyss.

He’s near.

He’s here.

So, can I give you my best advice? Take advantage of His nearness.

Follow Jesus as closely as you can.

And love Jesus as deeply as you can.

The very next verse in that passage from Deuteronomy says,

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” (Deuteronomy 30:15)

Choose life.

Choose Jesus.

Notes:

Scott W. Hahn and Curtis Mitch, Romans: (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars – CCSS) (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture), Baker Academic, November 7, 2017

Image of Jesus via artplus on iStock

Available on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Audible!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

In this heartfelt, Scripture-rich journey, Kurt Bennett invites you to study not just the words of Jesus, but His actions—His love, His mercy, His boundaries, and even His naps.

Honest. Practical. Deeply human.

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus.

(Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon, the ebook is now available on Google Play Books, and the audiobook is available on Audible.)

Now you can take Love Like Jesus with you wherever life happens.
We recently released the audiobook version, beautifully narrated by Jonathan St. John. And it’s available on the following platforms:

• Audible
• iTunes/Apple Books
• Audiobooks.com
• Spotify

It’s also available on Amazon, Hoopla, Audiobooksnow, Chirp, Libro, Overdrive, and virtually everywhere audiobooks are offered.

You can listen right now!