Galations 5: 7 - 9 NKJV
As somewhat of a amateur photographer I have experimented off and on with different lens filters. One I might use to darken the photo, while I might use another to give a certain colored hue to my shot. Using a filter can produce some nice photos. However, our filter may actually cloud our own view of Christ Jesus. This, my friends, is the Jesus filter. The Jesus filter is nothing more than the experiences which might affect our own view of who Jesus truly is. I have seen the Jesus filter in full effect in our sunday morning group meetings. The views of Christ which we discuss have numbered up to three at times. In fact, there is a running joke amongst us that we serve two Gods. Two Gods, or two different views of the same God? I would venture to guess that many times our own view of God might be somewhat skewed. I don't blame the christian for the differing views of Jesus, many times we simply believe what we have been taught. Or, in my own experience, my life experiences. I recall a good friend who, while I was still counted among the institutional church goers, took to refering to God simply as "Daddy." Now, there are plenty of people out there who might see this as a endearing term for our heavenly Father, and it is. However, having grown up without a father, calling God Daddy cut right to the wounds of my heart. This was my filter. I could not see God as my Father simply because of the experiences with my own dad. God might leave me as my own father had. God might deprive me of His love as my dad had done. Though I knew Him as God, I couldn't get too close to Him for obvious reasons. Eventually, I came to see God not as a extension of my own experiences but as my heavenly Father who would never leave nor forsake me. Are you begining to see just how our Jesus filter works? In our sunday group we have a man who grew up in the strict teachings of the institutional church. To him, everything about God is cut and dry, what the scriptures say is who God is. There is little room for a more personal relationship with Him. Within this mans filter, God is either a God of mercy or judgement depending on how we behave. There has been many a time when I have told him that I don't serve the same God as he does...and I don't.
5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4: 5 - 6 NKJV
So, how do you see Jesus? How dark or light is your own Jesus filter? Is your filter clouded by life experiences as mine was? I get it. One thing I have learned is that Jesus transcends all which we might ever experience. Jesus has overcome this world, that we will never need to {John 16:33}. In a way, there is nothing we might ever face in our life that Jesus will not be personally involved in. How is that possible? Because of the truth of Christ Jesus in us. The apostle Paul tells us that Jesus Himself lives through us today {Galations 2:20}. There is nothing that we will ever experience that Jesus will not be a intimate part of. All that Jesus is, we are as well. Unfortunately, many a Jesus filter has clouded this truth from the eyes of believers. We are stuck in that old testament narrative that God could never be in the presence of sinful man. Well, the truth of Jesus is that sin is no longer a issue between He and us. Jesus dealt with that sin issue at the cross. As He cried out "It is finished!" He declared a end to our own sin. Paul tells us that we have, in fact, died to sin {Romans 6:6}. Indeed, that old institutional church narrative that it is sin which seperates us from God has been done away with. Yet, somehow, this does not fit into our Jesus filter. We continue to see ourselves as washed in our sins, unworthy of a personal relationship with Christ. My friends, you've been lied to. There is no longer any need for us to "run the good race" that we somehow might be like Christ one day on that bright shining shore. The unfiltered truth of Jesus is that we already are as He is. All that He is...we are. It was never Gods intention for us to live apart from Him. However, it WAS our intention to use our own experiences to filter the truth of Christ. While it may take some radical thinking to overcome the Jesus filter, He will be revealed within us by our heavenly Father. However, if you choose to stick to your guns and live within the filter...then you serve a different God than I do.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, creckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment