Blasphemers And Outcasts

7“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?10“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."
John 14: 7 - 11 NKJV

A good point was brought up in our Sunday group this week.  We were discussing our usual truth of Christ in us when it was recalled just how much resistance that Jesus Himself had received when He confidently proclaimed Himself to be the Son of the living God {John 10:30}.  In fact, the Jews of Jesus' day were in fact ready to take up stones to stone this blasphemer.  Who could blame them?  Can a mere man be God?  Let me take another path, can a mere man be Christ?  Indeed, if Jesus and the Father  are one, what does that say for we who have accepted the truth of Christ today?  What is the truth of Jesus today?  Well, I believe that it goes back to the many discussions which our own group has had in the past.  The fact that we, as followers of Jesus...are Christ.  Before anyone takes up stones against me for such a blasphemous proclamation, consider the apostle Paul.  For it was Paul himself who declared himself dead and yet alive to Christ Jesus who lived in him {Galations 2:20}.  Do we discount these very words of Paul simply because we find what he was telling us too outlandish to believe?  Yet this is the reaction many who know Christ have gotten as they proclaim their belief.  This is the same reaction I myself have received when I have shared with others that it is Jesus who lives through me.  We have a running joke among out group that we have been kicked out of every decent church in our immediate area for our blasphemy.  Of course this is far from the truth, but at times I do indeed feel like an outcast among christianity.  However, this in no way has diminished my faith the words of Paul are true and that Jesus Himself lives through me.  I get plenty of strange looks every time I tell the story, but the truth of Christ remains.

31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” 34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? 35“If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36“do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38“but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and fbelieve that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
John 10: 31 - 38 NKJV

In John 10 we are given a example of how the Jews of Jesus' time reacted to His revelation that He was the Son of God.  In fact, had Jesus stuck to that claim the Jews may have had an easier time swallowing His words.  However, when Jesus made the claim that He and the Father were one, that was too much for them to handle.  This man Jesus of Nazareth was a blasphemer!  For simply revealing to all who would hear Him that He was the promised Messiah, the Jewish authorities plotted to have Him arrested.  Was He lying?  Of course not, but these Pharisee school leaders of Jesus' day could and would not tolerate such statements from a mere man.  They couldn't wrap their mids around His words.  I won't get into the fact that we have scriptures that proclaim the truth of Christ in us which the church refuses to teach even today, but I may once again be branded as a blasphemer.  After all, I am a sinful man and Jesus cannot be in the presence of sin {Romans 3:23}.  So tell me mister Pharisee school scholar, which of my sins did Jesus refuse to wipe away on that cross?  We cannot so gladly accept that scripture which sounds good to us and yet discount that which we do not yet understand.  It just doesn't work that way.  The fact is, Jesus bled and died that my sins past, present and future would be wiped away to be remembered never more.  I have no need to continue to come to my heavenly Father for forgiveness, for He has already accomplished that through Christ Jesus.  So I will go on making my blasphemous statements while knowing in my heart that it is Christ Himself who lives through me.

20“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

~Scott~