Knowing Jesus

 

So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Hebrews 9: 28 NKJV 

Have you ever heard the phrase getting to know Jesus and wondered just how in the hell it was possible?  Well, you're not alone.  I feel that the phrase getting to know Jesus has become simply a catch phrase for the modern institutional church.  It's good marketing.  What Christian would not want to get to know Jesus better?  Well, the truth is that we don't need to sit through countless boring sermons or Sunday school classes in order to obtain enough knowledge of Jesus that we can come to know Him better than we already do.  In my last post I tackled the issue of believing in a Jesus we cannot see.  How difficult is that?  From a young age I've been told that if I'm a good boy that I will eventually be rewarded with a eternity with Jesus.  Really?  So, then I'll finally get to see Him?  Does anyone else besides me see something wrong with this equation?  Now, I know who Jesus is in theory, the scriptures do a good job of delivering that message.  However, many times the Jesus of the bible seems a bit, shall we say, impersonal.  Indeed, it is written that upon His rising again, that Jesus ascended into heaven to be seated at the Fathers side.  For many people, this is where the story of Jesus ends.  One thing I have noticed over the past few years in my journey to knowing Christ is that the cross was not the end...but the beginning for Jesus.  For it was after His own death that His earthly chains were lifted and the flesh life which held Him for so many years was now behind Him.  This is where our quest for understanding who Jesus truly is begins.  

"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."

Galatians 2: 20 NKJV 

I understand those who have the belief that Jesus is died and is sitting in heaven removed from all that is on the earth.  After all, that is the message many a church has put out over the centuries.  But let's look into that belief.  So, we can agree that Jesus is indeed not dead, right?  I mean, he rose from the dead three days after His death.  That, of course, is a essential part of Christian theology and teaching.  So, if indeed Jesus is alive, where is He?  Here's a better question, if Jesus is alive, wouldn't He want to be among those He ultimately gave His life for?  The apostle Paul thought so.  It is Paul who introduces us to the truth of a Jesus you more than likely have never been introduced to in any church you've been to.  Paul writes that it is Jesus who now lives through Him {Galatians 2:20}.  This is not only a key verse in our understanding of Christ in us, but also of knowing the man Jesus better than we ever have before.  One way to better know Him is to see Jesus as He is, as flesh and blood.  Heresy?  Hardly.  For if we trust in the truth of the words of Paul, it is Jesus who we identify ourselves with.  Jesus cannot live in us without becoming intimately attached to every part of our being.  All that we think, feel and experience we do AS HIM.  Yes, that's a pretty big serving of truth to contemplate all at once, yet that in no way means that it's not true.  My own understanding of who Jesus was used to end at the cross.  It wasn't until I saw that cross as the beginning of my time with Him that my knowledge of who Jesus is began to change.  That...is knowing Jesus.

~Scott~