Ben wrote about this just now. Or at least he mentioned it briefly in his latest post, but I thought I might latch onto it a bit more and see where we could take this.

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Jesus without the cross would just be a “good guy”.

And that’s not what we need. We needed a saviour, not another good guy – and a common misconception or perspective that is so wrong is that Jesus was “a good teacher”, and nothing more.

I think I’ve heard a few people say this to me in my lifetime, and I’m sure a lot of people hold this view, but it’s easy to say this when we ignore the rest of what he said.

Here is a man who claimed to be God. Who said he had the authority to forgive sin.

Who called women “woman”.

Who had the idea that if you get hit in the face, you should “Turn the other cheek”.

Not exactly “wise” by our worldly standards. Or politically correct. Or sane-sounding.

But thank God that Jesus wasn’t just a good guy, but He is actually God incarnate, sent to seek and save the lost, and take on the punishment that we could not.

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On a completely unrelated note, Ben wrote about the fact that we need to take risks if things are going to be worth it.

And I’m sure either one of us / both have written about this before, but often one of the challenges that we don’t expect is not necessarily refraining from “doing evil”, but simply being good and not great.

And the easiest way to not do great things for God is to do good things for God.

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Are we called to live “good” lives, or are we called to greatness?