The “I’ll Take It From Here” Heresy
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2 KJV)
My favorite all time comedy film has to be “What About Bob?” This 1991 movie stars Bill Murray as the multi-phobic patient, Bob Wiley and Richard Dreyfuss as the pompous psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin. Dr. Marvin’s family vacation is invaded by his new patient Bob and that creates some craziness. There is a particular scene when Dr. Marvin’s 12-year-old son, Sigmund, (no doubt named after Sigmund Freud) is trying to overcome his fear of diving headfirst off the family’s dock. It appears that Dr. Marvin had been unsuccessful in helping his son overcome this particular fear. But Bob, with total empathy or young Sigmund, was able to successfully help him overcome his phobia to dive into the lake.
Once Dr. Marvin sees his son do this, he excitedly runs down the dock and yells at Bob, “I’ll take it from here, Bob” as he dismissively shoves him off the side of the dock into the lake. It is a comical moment where a father, who failed to help his son in an area that he had just recently written a book about, rushes in to capitalize on his patient’s success in helping his son overcome his fear of diving.
This comical scene is a parable of a not too funny heresy that has plagued the church of Jesus Christ since its very inception. What makes this false teaching so seductive is not that it is explicitly taught, but it is implicitly “caught.” It is the idea that Jesus Christ may be totally sufficient for our salvation to get us to heaven, but He is not all we need practically here on planet earth.
The Apostle Paul warned the young believers in Galatia that they had erroneously added onto their simple faith in Jesus things that were leading them away from Him. He wrote, “Are you so foolish? After you begun by means of the Spirit, are you trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Galatian 3:3) He says the same thing to the Colossians in the positive, “So just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7)
What does “I’ll take it from here” look like? It is seeking to live the Christian life through our own self-effort. That is impossible. Only Christ, by His Spirit, can live that life through us. On one hand this can be a self-indulgent “fleshly” life that only lives for one’s own desires and checks in with God to get rescued from the occasional pickle. This is called “license.” On the other hand, it can be very religious, closely resembling Christianity but striving to live as a Christian by our own will power while being disconnected to Him. This is called “legalism.” The “I’ll take it from here" heresy, whether lived out by license or legalism, traps us in our own self-centeredness and repels others from being drawn to HIM through our example.
When I was a young Christian, I was dabbling with some things that were detracting me away from the simple focus on Jesus Christ. A person in my family, who was also new in the faith, said to me, “Just keep it simple.” I have never forgotten that. Unfortunately, that person did. After starting out with a simple, love relationship with Christ it is so foolish to say, “I’ll take it from here!” Paul’s warning to the Corinthians rings very true as a challenge for us today, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV)