Bumper Sticker Religion
I love reading bumper stickers and often find their cleverness intriguing. One of my favorites reads: “God is too big to fit into any one religion.” Maybe you’ve seen it too. So, how are we to understand this witty statement of relativism in the light of Jesus? Well, we need to see what’s true about it and what’s false about it.
First, this bumper sticker correctly understands that if all religions claim to be mere opinions about God, then, of course, the quip is quite true. There exists no one that has figured God out, for God by definition is beyond our figuring out—even the Bible teaches this. Thus, no such religion could ever contain God.
However, where this bumper sticker fails is that there in at least one “religion” that doesn’t fit into the category of mere opinion. Why? Well, the central premise of Jesus’ teaching is not merely that he had a more accurate idea of God. No, he claimed something categorically different. He claimed to be God, and this changes everything. Certainly, His claim may be true or it may be false, but it cannot be, as the bumper sticker suggests, “not big enough for God”. For, if Jesus’ claim is true, then He IS God. Thus, the question becomes: How would one know whether His claim is true or false?
And that’s something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective”.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
~Colossians 2:8-10
