I must confess that when I first saw the initials "W. W. J. D.", I thought they referred to a country music radio station. I was quite surprised to discover not only that they really stood for "What would Jesus do?" but also that these initials were fast becoming a kind of cultic item in the popular Christian market. From billboards to bracelets, W. W. J. D. is staring out at a potentially curious public, demanding that those who see it should both decipher the initials and (more importantly) answer the question and apply it to their own lives. The underlying assumption is that what Jesus did is what he expects us to do, so that by finding the right answer to this question, we shall discover how we should live our lives today.
First of all, let it be said that the intention behind what amounts to a popular advertising campaign is well-intentioned and entirely laudable. All of us should want to do the right thing, and for Christians there is no higher authority in this matter than Jesus Christ himself. To live a life pleasing to him is, and ought to be, what we all try to do. So why would anybody want to question W. W. J. D.?
Deconstructing W. W. J. D.
To understand why a theologian would be uneasy when seeing these intriguing initials, you have to think for a moment about the implications of this advice. First of all, to ask what Jesus would do in any given circumstance today is to speculate beyond what the New Testament tells us. How would Jesus vote, for example, in a modern election? "Rendering unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" is still good advice when it comes to paying taxes and obeying the government, but it is not enough to tell us whether our particular Caesar ought to go on ruling for another four years or not! Most of the Jews to whom Jesus gave that advice would certainly have turned their Caesar out of office if they had had the chance, but we cannot infer from the New Testament that Jesus agreed with them, or that he had any opinion on the subject, one way or the other. So what would Jesus do today? The answer is that we simply do not know! And just think-if Jesus were to turn up at a social event in your church and start turning the coffee and Coke into wine, what would happen to him? In most places, he would probably be thrown out for bringing alcohol onto church premises and encouraging other people to consume it. Is this what we should be trying to do?
Clearly, "what would Jesus do?" is a selective question, designed to produce answers at the level of moral principle, not actual practice. But what is wrong with trying to imitate the details of Jesus' behavior? To get the right answer to this question, we have to think seriously about who Jesus is. Underlying the W. W. J. D. philosophy is the belief that Jesus was, in effect, the first Christian. If we believe that, then it follows naturally that our behavior as Christians ought to imitate his as far as possible, perhaps even to the point of making up answers to questions (such as who to vote for) that he did not specifically address in the Gospels. But if you stop to think about it, you will soon realize that Jesus was not the first Christian-in fact, Jesus was not a Christian at all, nor could he be one. Why not? Jesus was not a Christian because a Christian is a sinner saved by grace through faith in him. Jesus was sinless and did not need to be saved by anybody-not even by himself. In one sense he was a man just like us, but in another sense he was quite different, because he was not a sinner. (Some people think that this is a contradiction in terms, but we have to remember that God did not create human beings as sinful-sin is something that our first ancestors chose, and the trap which they fell into has been passed on to us. It is, therefore, quite possible for a sinless human being to exist, as long as he escapes that particular trap. Jesus did, because although he was a man, he was also God at the same time, and, therefore, able to avoid the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin.)
The Heresy of Adoptionism
You may not have given this much thought before, but the belief that Jesus was the first Christian, and that, therefore, the difference between him and us is one of degree rather than one of kind, goes back to ancient times, when it was known as the heresy of adoptionism. This heresy was apparently taught by Paul of Samosata, who was a bishop of Antioch, and it was condemned at a synod held in that city in ad 268. The basic belief was that Jesus was an ordinary human being whom God adopted as his Son, probably at the moment of his baptism, when a voice from heaven proclaimed that fact. The inference is that since all Christians become adopted children of God at their baptism, Jesus was just demonstrating a new way of relating to God, which we all share. Later on, adoptionism was refined to the point where it was said that the fetus in Mary's womb was endued with the Holy Spirit, so that her child was adopted even before birth. Although this refinement-which we now call "Nestorianism," after Patriarch Nestorius (381-451), who was supposed to have believed it-was a good deal more subtle than what Paul of Samosata is supposed to have believed, the overall effect is the same: Jesus is still just a man filled with the grace of God and not really God in human flesh.
The problem with adoptionism, as with every plausible heresy, is that it contains an important measure of truth. We are indeed called to be children of God by adoption, and Jesus told us to pray as he prayed, "Abba, Father." To be able to use these words of the Lord's prayer is a privilege given to Christians simply because of this, and we must never underestimate just how important it is. We have a relationship with God in Christ, which goes beyond what was given to the Jews, and is qualitatively different from anything offered by any other religion.
But if it is true that we are children of God by adoption, it is also true that Jesus is the Son of God by nature, not because he was a good man whom God chose for that position. The Bible, which speaks of our adoption as sons, also says that Jesus is the "only-begotten" Son of the Father (John 1:14), uniquely full of grace and truth. He lived on earth as a man, but everything he said and did has to be understood within the context of his spiritual mission. He did not come to earth in order to teach us how to live-the Ten Commandments and everything that went with them were doing that already, even if they were misunderstood by the Jewish leaders of the time. What he came to do was something that the Old Testament law could not achieve. This was to pay the price of our sins and to open up for us the way to eternal life in heaven. No mere human being could do this, because every descendant of Adam and Eve is a sinner, prevented from escaping the punishment of death, which God has decreed for all those who go against his will. But Jesus, because he was God as well as man, was not bound by the limitations of human sinfulness. He was able to take our sins upon himself without being overcome by them. He was even able to die, without being defeated by death. Because he came back from the dead, you and I can have the gift of eternal life. We are not thereby spared physical death, but we are given the assurance that that is not the end, because in and through Christ we shall live forever with God in heaven.
The Real Purpose of Jesus' Life
The implications of this for understanding the earthly life of Jesus, and the way in which it relates to our own lives, are enormous. First of all, everything Jesus did on earth was designed to proclaim his impending sacrifice, death, and resurrection. His miracles, for example, were signs of the coming kingdom, and only made sense within that context. The miracle at Cana, for example, proclaims the fact that there will soon be another wedding feast, the wedding feast of the Lamb, at which time the old wine of the law of sin and death will give way to the new wine of eternal life through Christ's blood, shed for us. The raising of Lazarus points to the upcoming resurrection of all believers, and so it goes on. A great deal of what Jesus did would be unacceptable in any other context-cleansing the temple by violent means, cursing the fig tree, sending demons into a herd of pigs, etc. Even when there are apparent similarities to what can happen to us, it is often the underlying differences that are more significant. Take, for example, the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. Everybody is tempted and, on the surface, this story is one that seems to make Jesus quite human-one of us, in fact. But look a little closer and you will see that the essence of temptation is that we are tempted to do things that are within our power. I would not be tempted to turn stones into bread, for example, because I am incapable of doing it. But the point of the story as told by Matthew is that Jesus could easily have done it if he had wanted to-and the reason for that is that he was God. So even at the point of temptation, Jesus' experiences are fundamentally different from ours, however similar they may appear to be on the surface.
Secondly, if you and I are meant to imitate Jesus' behavior, the logical conclusion is that we somehow have the same mission as he had. There are plenty of people who think this, but this is because for them Jesus is (or was) just a great religious teacher, who was put to death for doing good. Many of these people are prepared to accept that similar things might well happen to us if we are serious about following Jesus: The world finds goodness as hard to live with today as it did back then. It is an attractive vision to some, because it justifies a life of heroic self-sacrifice in combating evil, but it is not the Christian Gospel. Jesus did not die by accident, or even because he annoyed the authorities. He died because that was what he came to earth to do-and for a very specific purpose: salvation from sin. Can we put ourselves in his shoes and do what he did?
There are three reasons why we cannot. First, and most fundamental, we are sinners, as he was not, and cannot escape from that condition. Second, even if we can do some of the things Jesus did, we would have to save ourselves before we could save anyone else, which Jesus did not have to do. Third, to try to save ourselves is to deny his power to save us. What can we do for ourselves that he had not already done? This is the essence of salvation by grace through faith-God has done something for us which we are unable to do for ourselves, and no amount of effort on our part can add to this in any way. There is a world of difference between thinking of Jesus as a good man to whom bad things unfortunately happened, and seeing him as God become man in order to give us the gift of eternal life. We can thank God that he sent his Son from heaven, and did not simply find a man on earth to adopt as the first Christian.
Orthodox Christology
The essence of the biblical doctrine of Christ, or what theologians call "orthodox Christology," is that the Word of God became flesh, and that we human beings beheld his glory in that flesh-not underneath it, or in spite of it, but in it. We saw God at work, not with but as a human being. What Jesus did is only comprehensible if we take the trouble to understand who Jesus was-and still is. And when we do that, we shall find that it is in the very places where he is most like us that we perceive just how different from us he really is. With him we are dealing not with a brilliant rabbi or a gifted faith healer-we are dealing directly with God himself.
The heresies that have sprung up in the history of the Church have almost all tried to deny this one way or another. W. W. J. D. is a modern form of adoptionism, well-meant (as its ancient counterparts probably also were) but fundamentally flawed. The real question we should be asking is not What would Jesus do?, but What has Jesus done? And then, What does Jesus want me to do? And the answer to that second question is to be found not in his actions, which were done on our behalf, but in his teaching, which was intended for our instruction.
When we grasp that, we shall understand why it is inadequate for us to ask what Jesus would have done in our circumstances. Whatever that might have been, its purpose would have been to save you and me from our sins. But our actions have a different purpose. We are not out to save the world, or even ourselves, but to bear witness to the one who has done that for us. It is a lesser task, which is just as well, since we are lesser beings than he is. But at the same time, it is a vitally important task, because it demonstrates the power of Christ at work in our lives today. The Gospel message can still work miracles nearly 2000 years after it was first proclaimed, but they are miracles that reinforce, and do not reinvent, the good news of salvation brought by the Son of God who became man. The next time you see W. W. J. D., put W. M. T. (want me to) between the J and the D. That way you will turn a good intention into equally good theology, and end up with a much better understanding of what your own Christian life is all about.
