WWJD?

In 1989 Janie Tinklenberg read a novel by Charles Sheldon titled In His Steps. Since its original publishing in 1896 the novel has sold over 30 million copies, making it one of the best selling books of all time. You might not be familiar with the content of the book, but you are certainly familiar with the book’s wildly famous subtitle: “What would Jesus do?” This was the idea that captured Janie Tinkleberg’s mind, and it was something that she wanted to pass along to the youth of her church in Holland, Michigan. So, Janie had bracelets made up for her youth group with the letters WWJD printed on them. What started with a batch of 300 bracelets grew to unthinkable levels, with some estimating that between 15 and 50 million WWJD bracelets were sold in the 1990s alone. If you grew up going to church around this time then you know exactly what this was all about, everyone had a WWJD bracelet!

There were some positive fruits that came out of the WWJD craze—it is generally a good thing to help people take Christ into consideration before they make life choices. However, there was an unavoidable superficiality to the WWJD phenomenon. For starters, Jesus is the Son of God, which means that we can’t (and shouldn’t) do everything that he would do. If you show up in public places claiming to be the Son of God and offering people forgiveness for their sins, you’ll likely end up spending some time in a mental health facility. More importantly, the Bible does not always tell us how Jesus did things. We don’t know much about his daily schedule, we don’t know anything about his personal hygiene practices, and, despite what some environmentalist claim, we don’t know what kind of car Jesus would drive. This is part of the problem. The WWJD concept is limited in its usefulness because we lack the personal power to do what Jesus would do and because we don’t always have the specificity we need in order to know what Jesus would do. This is why, rather than guessing what Jesus would do, it is far more helpful to think about what Jesus did and what Jesus said.

The Work of Christ

What did Jesus do? He died on the cross and rose from the dead to make it possible for sinners like us to be reconciled to God.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6–11, ESV)

What he did makes it possibles for us to be saved through faith in him, and it makes it possible for us to grow in holiness through his Spirit.

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31, ESV)

Christ did everything that we need for salvation and sanctification.

The Word of Christ

We know that Jesus has accomplished salvation because he has told us so. In other words, we know what Jesus did because of what he has said. Christ has revealed himself to us in the Bible, which means that we do not need to guess about what Jesus thinks about an issue. We already have his authoritative truth for life and godliness. Everything that we need to know about Christ, and everything that Christ expects from us can be found in the pages of Scripture. This means that the Bible is sufficient to address every area of our lives that falls under the Lordship of Christ, which is every part of our lives.

“But [Jesus] answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”” (Matthew 4:4, ESV)

The Point

It is a good thing to take into consideration the example of Christ as you live your life, but the example of Christ detached from his work and his word will not produce spiritual fruit. The work of Christ on the cross is necessary for salvation and the word of Christ is what directs our lives as saved people. In other words, if you want to live like Christ, you should consider relying on something with more depth and power than a colorful bracelet. If you make the work of Christ the object of your faith and the word of Christ the lamp of your life, then you are doing what Jesus wants you to do.