This from Ray Ortlund Jr. is just dead on, and brilliantly put:
Our local deity is not Jesus. He goes by the name Jesus. But in reality, our local deity is Jesus Jr.
Our little Jesus is popular because he is useful. He makes us feel better while conveniently fitting into the margins of our busy lives. But he is not terrifying or compelling or thrilling. When we hear the gospel of Jesus Jr., our casual response is “Yeah, that’s what I believe.” Jesus Jr. does not confront us, surprise us, stun us. He looks down on us with a benign, all-approving grin. He tells us how wonderful we really are, how entitled we really are, how wounded we really are, and it feels good. . . .
Jesus Jr. is the magnification of Self, the idealization of Self, the absolutization of Self turning around and validating Self, flattering Self, reinforcing Self. Jesus Jr. does not change us, because he is a projection of us.
I need to get caught back up on the Rev. Dr. Ortlund’s blog; my thanks to Jared Wilson for highlighting this one. Read the whole thing, because he really nails the core idolatry of so much of the American church. I’ve written before on what some have dubbed “the Jesus heresy,” but I think it would be truer to call it “the Jesus Jr. heresy,” because it’s this shrunken, sanitized, shrink-wrapped, shock-absorbed replacement Jesus that makes it possible.