This is no plastic tablecloth

A salesman came to my door with a plastic tablecloth in a plastic bag. He held out the bag and told me he was giving it away, no strings attached. I looked at the ‘gift’ and told him that I was not interested. He said, “But it is free.”

I said that I didn’t need another plastic tablecloth, free or not. He was pushy. He even became angry. Not to be intimidated, I insisted that I didn’t need his free gift and closed the door.

I never did find out what he was actually selling. While I’m immediately turned off by those fake, “How are you” questions, I’m also immediately suspicious when a salesperson avoids saying why they are at my door. Is all that preamble supposed to make me curious? Or are they ashamed of their product?

Credentials are important too. Sometimes the salesman at the door wears a name badge like those issued by companies so workers can go through their security and gain entrance to their workplace. I’m never impressed with that either. It takes more than a verbal claim and a strong sales pitch to convince me. Besides being a “tough sell,” I know enough about computer graphics to realize that anyone can make a convincing badge.

In the spiritual realm, the ‘toughest sells’ are the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, His miracles, and the declaration that He rose from the dead. The Bible focuses most on the last event, the resurrection and often declares it.

The Greek word “declared” is the root of our English word for “horizon.” It means “to distinguish” just like the horizon is a clear demarcation line between the sky and the earth. I wrote yesterday how my subjective experience was a proof to me that Jesus is alive and is God in human flesh, yet that experience is not universal, nor will it convince anyone else, particularly after I am dead and gone. The real proof is in this declaration. At the very beginning of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he said God promised the good news . . .

“. . . concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:3-4)

Jesus was declared as God’s Son coming in human flesh, yet distinguished as more than mere human by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the fact that He rose from the dead. This was the testing point, and is the crux of Christianity. Paul would later write:

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. (1 Corinthians 15:13-14)

This then makes the resurrection also a testing point for our faith. Certain cults who claim to follow and exalt Jesus Christ fail on this point. They refuse the idea that Jesus rose from the dead and say He was either changed to some other form, or never actually died, even that He deceived His disciples in some way.

So then the test for Jesus being God is the resurrection, but the test for people who claim to believe and follow Him is also the resurrection. Christians are convinced and acknowledge that He died and rose again.

This blog is called ‘Practical Faith’ because I’m that kind of person. If I don’t need a plastic tablecloth, it matters not that it is free. My mantra is that a bargain is a bargain only if I need it. But I need Jesus. I need One who gives forgiveness for my sin and removal of my guilt. I need One who can change and cleanse my bad habits and make me a new person. I need His assurance of grace and of my eternal destiny.

I’ve often said, “Don’t give me a sales pitch. I will investigate myself, and if I need it, I will buy it. No one has to sell it to me.” Jesus knows what I am like, so He didn’t give me a sales pitch nor did He send any of His people to pressure me. Instead, He had me reading the Bible and let me do whatever I wanted. One day I realized that ‘doing what I wanted’ was totally messing up my life. I also realized that I needed help. With that door open, He simply walked into my heart and became the most incredible — and practical — free gift anyone could every receive.