Wir sind bettler. Hoc est verum.

WWJD has been known as the statement: What Would Jesus Do, and has been surrounded by controversy. Should we use such a saying, or shouldn’t we? Is it Biblical? I would argue that we shouldn’t say What Would Jesus Do but rather say Why Would Jesus Die.

What Would Jesus Do is not Biblical in how it is used. Most people use it to “help” them live life and decide what to do in circumstances. Although on the surface one would argue that doing what the perfectly righteous man did would be a good thing, I would argue that it is not Biblical nor how God wants us to think about life. If we go around asking ourselves What Would Jesus Do we decieve ourselves in two ways. First we are delusional in thinking that we can do what Jesus would do. We are corrupted in nature and our very good works are filthy rags. We cannot heal people on a whim, we cannot resist sin completely, we cannot raise the dead or cast out demons on a whim. Jesus did all these things in His own power and authority, we cannot claim such power and authority in ourselves for we are not God.

Just think about it for a second, you are surmising that you can do what God did. Jesus created the world, can you? If faced a weeping widow can you raise her husband? If faced with a hungry crowd can you feed them with just a few fishes? Can you turn water into wine? Can you say “this is my body given for you”? Do you see what I am getting at? If you went around thinking in every circumstance What Would Jesus Do, you would find very few circumstances in which you could actually attempt to even get close to doing what Jesus Would Do, so that would mean the statement is over all not helpful or proper.

What then is the real reason people like such a statement? I think it’s because people by nature love the law, and want to follow rules. We cannot accept that Jesus freely paid for our sins and asks nothing from us, but gives us even the very faith to believe and trust in His gift. We want to “work” for our sins, we want to feel like we are paying for something, since we tell ourselves “nothing is ever free”. This distortion is rooted in our very nature. So if we go around thinking “What Would Jesus Do” we are going around and dwelling on the law, we have forgotten the gospel, we have forgotten that any strength we have towards good works comes from Christ. This is ultimately destructive for us because then we are focusing on our works, and not the gospel. We are thinking that we can please God by doing what Jesus did, and are trying to use our works to glorify Him, instead of resting on the Gospel and letting that truth prompt us to good works out of Gratitude. Besides where in the Bible are we told to model Jesus in everything He did, to be just like Him in every circumstance? We are told to be Holy like God, but this is not possible in our fallen state and is rather meant to make us run to the Gospel for help instead of our own works.

Why then change the saying to Why Would Jesus Die? Because this statement is what we need to dewell on every minute of the day for it is a reminder of the Gospel. If we ask ourselves Why Would Jesus Die, we must then tell ourselves “because we are sinful with no hope except in His sacrifice, which He was willing to give for His great love for us, and this sacrifice pays for all my sins”. Now we must not stop there, and this statement isn’t meant to be complete but rather a memory tool. The compete statement would be “Why Would Jesus Die and Raise From The Dead”, and we should answer “to pay for our sins and impute His righteousness to us”. For you see according to the Gospel we have already done all the works of Christ, we have been completely righteous and have done everything God has asked of us, in Christ. Because Christ did it for us, and then imputed such works to us, there is no real reason to ask ourselves any longer “What Would Jesus Do” and now is the time to ask “Why Would Jesus Die” and live in the glorious truth: “for our sins so we can now be called sons of God”.