Christ Alone
The danger today is that many people are no longer content to receive Christ as He is. They want to reshape Him into something useful to their politics, their culture, their tribe, or their grievance.
But Jesus never surrendered Himself to the systems of this world.
He recognized earthly authority where it had its place. He paid taxes. He said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” But He never came to repair Caesar. He came to reveal the Father, call sinners to repentance, and establish a kingdom that is not of this world.
That is where many of us are getting distracted.
Some are obsessed with the color of Christ, as though His saving power depends on fitting Him into a racial argument. Others sanitize political figures, excusing behavior that should grieve any serious Christian, simply because that person serves their preferred side. In both cases, Christ is being reduced. He is being pulled down into the image of man.
As for the question of Christ’s earthly lineage, we should be careful. Jesus entered the world through Mary, not Joseph. Joseph gave Him legal standing in the house of David, but he was not His biological father. So turning Christ into a cultural trophy based on Joseph’s background misses the greater truth: Jesus is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, born of a virgin, given for the sins of the world.
That does not mean His humanity was fake. It was real. He came into a real people, a real history, a real body, and a real world. But His identity cannot be owned by any political party, racial group, nation, or cultural movement.
The true Christ does not need to be whitened, blackened, Americanized, politicized, or sanitized.
He needs to be worshiped.
And that is where the Church has to recover its courage. We should not excuse sin because it comes from our side. We should not twist Scripture to protect our preferences. We should not make Jesus the mascot of our politics.
We are called to separate from the spirit of this world and embrace Christ alone.
Not Christ plus party.
Not Christ plus race.
Not Christ plus culture.
Not Christ plus Trump.
Not Christ plus our favorite outrage.
Christ alone.