The Worlds Jesus

 

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." 

Revelation 3: 20 NKJV 

I was listening this week to a non believer describe who he thought that Jesus was.  Well, his description went along the lines of a man who was kind, forgiving and just.  I can't be certain, but I think this unbeliever stole a peek at the bible because this sounds kind of like the Jesus I've come to know.  It's funny, but the world view of Jesus is more or less the same as someone who has been a believer most of their life.  I've heard Jesus described as the worlds greatest man and the ultimate peacemaker, all true by the way.  Even in television and movies, Jesus is depicted as being one who is merciful and kind.  Yet I recall a conversation I had with a coworker a few years back who was by no means a believer.  One day, somehow, our conversation turned to the topic of Jesus.  Now, he knew that I was a believer, and he made sure on occasion to mock me for blindly following a cult.  However, once our conversation turned to Jesus, we suddenly came to a agreement about my belief.  As he gushed his praises of Jesus the man, I smiled and agreed with him.  Then I told him, Jesus is all of these things, and more.  Then he asked me, 'What's the catch?'  'Catch?' I asked.  "Yeah, that part where you tell me that Jesus commands me to go to church, tithe and lord over my wife?"  It was then that I realized the bad rep that Jesus has gotten through the years had claimed another victim.  I told him that he was confusing the man Jesus with the religion of Christianity.  Yes, all of the attributes that he had attributed to Jesus were true.  Jesus is kind.  Jesus is merciful and just.  However, I also hear that Jesus wasn't too big on organized religion.  Especially when it came to a religion that placed men over others.  Jesus was no friend of the scribes and Jewish Pharisees who were the leaders of the Jewish faith.  It was Jesus who publicly shamed these men for their deeds done seemingly in the name of the Lord.  Could Jesus the man be the same Jesus we've been taught for so long?  

"But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much  a son of hell as yourselves." 

Matthew 23: 13 - 15 NKJV 

How much do we associate Jesus the man with the Jesus of Christianity?  Is there a difference in the two?  Honestly, I never knew the man Jesus until after I had left the mainstream church.  Yes, through years of teaching and sermons, I knew OF Him.  Yet I truly did not come to know the man Jesus until He was revealed in me.  Now, so we don't get lost in translation here, my own revelation of who Jesus truly is came in the same form experienced by the apostle Paul on that road to Damascus.  Paul realized that it was the Father who had, in His timing, revealed Christ Jesus in him {Galatians 1:15-15}.  Remember, this is coming from the guy who would later refer to himself as the chief of all sinners {1 Timothy 1:15}.  Jesus wasn't the guy who told Paul that he was condemned because of his sin.  No, Paul was saved through all which Jesus has accomplished.  Knowing this, Paul gives us one of the most important messages in scripture, that of Christ in us {Galatians 2:20}.  Christianity tells us that Jesus was crucified and buried then rose again three days later.  However, it's here where religion takes one road while the truth of Christ Jesus lies down another.  We're told that Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended unto the Father to be seated at His right hand {Mark 16:19}.  Fortunately, this isn't where the story of Jesus ends.  For we know, through Paul, that it is Christ Jesus who now lives in us.  So, which would you rather have, to know OF Jesus or to know the man Jesus?  

"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 

~Scott~