14But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,15and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3: 14 - 15 NKJV
I once asked one of the sunday school kids I used to work with a interesting question. This particular child was, for lack of a better word, a hell raiser at his early age. Prone to everything from disrupting class to running like a gazelle through the hall, we certainly had our hands full with this one. Then one sunday morning I took the opportunity to ask him a simple question. "Son, if you be just one person who would you like to be?" Of course, I was expecting him to mention someone like Tom Brady or some other action oriented individual, but his response surprised even me. "I want to be Jesus, because Jesus can do anything!" I'd never felt more proud, maybe all of our teaching was paying off. So, what in the world would put in a young childs mind to make him want to proclaim that he wanted to be someone like Jesus? Well, all of the lessons we had taught him aside, I believe that what this young lad saw in himself was a glimmer of who he truly was inside. Knowing what I know now, my first response to him would have been "but you already ARE Jesus." Indeed, we are told in Galations that our old self no longer exists, having been replaced by Christ Jesus who now lives through us {Galations 2:20}. Is this the Jesus which my young friend saw within himself? Perhaps, or he could simply be telling me what it is I wanted to hear. I prefer to think that Jesus Himself was showing him who he was. Indeed, this is how any of us will come to that realization of Christ in us. It's how the apostle Paul came to his own realization {Galations 1:15-16}. Granted, we can pray all day long that God would open our eyes to who it is we truly are, but it is by His own revelation to us that we will come to that realization. This realization can come at a early age or, as it did for me, after the passing of years and many questions. I was fortunate to have the advice and wisdom of a dear friend to guide me in my quest to know the man Christ Jesus. Far from the Jesus I learned about in church, the man Jesus I now have come to know is much different.
20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
John 17: 20 - 24 NKJV
If there is one thing I have learned in my time in christianity it is that there are two versions of the man Jesus we hold so dear to us. There is the Jesus we read and hear of in church. This Jesus is very similar to the other, He bled and died on the cross that our sins would be cleansed. Upon His death He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and was seated at the Fathers side. However, this is where the similarities end. It seems that the Jesus we were taught so often in church spends His time looking down upon us from His home in heaven, forever seprated from Gods children until God calls us home. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The man Jesus is in no way seperated from those who follow Him. On the contrary, Jesus is closer to us today than He ever has been. As Paul tells us in Galations, it is Christ Jesus who lives through us today. In fact, the world might not even know the man Jesus if not through those who believe in Him. Tell me, when was the last time you saw the man Jesus? I can tell you with all honesty that I have seen Him many times. Indeed, each time I look in the mirror I see Jesus gazing back at me. This is not the Jesus who I was taught in church, but the true identity of the man Jesus who lives through all who know Him. This is the Jesus who is seen daily through me in all I do. If the world is to see the man Jesus, it will be through those who have come to know Him.
12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4: 12 - 15 NKJV
~Scott~
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