Jesus: Gift or Example?

Is Jesus a gift or an example? I’ve noticed a tendency within Christianity to divide between Jesus-as-gift and Jesus-as-example. Those who take him as gift-alone speak exclusively of his forgiveness of our sins, while those who take him as example-alone speak exclusively of his love for others that we ought to emulate.

The gift-alone group treats the Christian message as mere information that makes no real change in the human will. It speaks of “forensic justification,” which means that God accepts us as sinners and lets us stay just as we are. The one who sees Jesus as gift alone might feel good about being “accepted” by God, but his life is no different than before he heard about this “acceptance”.  (It's worth noting the difference between "acceptance", which lets sin remain, and God's love, which burns away sin.)

In contrast, the example-alone group treats the Christian message as nothing more than a moral exhortation. With no recognition of Jesus-as-gift, we’re left on our own to muster up love for our enemies. This view dismisses the notion of original sin, acting as if we’re all good people who just need the occasional reminder to be nice.

Often the attempt to combine these two views results in a schizophrenic Christianity that’s part Gnosticism and part Pelagianism. “Jesus is God’s gift to you,” says schizophrenic Christianity, “and because of that, you need to go show his love to others.” Obviously, the division between Jesus-as-gift and Jesus-as-example is clumsy at best.

Put simply, this division is wrong. Jesus is indeed our gift, and he is also our example. The inseparability of the two is obvious in John 13, when Jesus washes his disciples’ feet (gift) and then gives us the “new commandment” to love one another just as he has loved us (example). Jesus’ commandment is not a moral appendix to his gift. Rather, the commandment and ability to follow Jesus’ example flow from the very nature of the gift.

Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet signifies a true interior renewal, cleansing us from sin. This cleansing restores the original purity of the human will by redirecting our wills toward love. In theological-speak, that means justification is not merely forensic.

Shortly after the foot-washing scene in John 13, Jesus says that “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.” (John 14:12) Jesus’ actions become ours, because his Spirit is living and acting in us. Just like Christ, those who have received the gift of his Spirit will, in turn, do his works: turning the ordinary water of life into the wine of celebration (John 2), giving others the sight of faith to see Jesus and believe that he is the Son of Man (John 9), calling those who are dead in sin back to life in Christ (John 11), and humbly loving others which thereby cleanses them from sin (John 13). Finally, because of the gift of Christ’s Spirit, those who believe will follow his example by laying down their lives for one another.  In so doing, they will rise to new life.

So is Jesus a gift or an example? Said differently, is he our Savior or our Lord? I think our answer is obvious: Yes.