This Man Jesus

 

But not as the offense, thus also the grace.  For if, by the offense of the one, the many died, much rather the grace of God and the gratuity in grace, which is of the One Man, Jesus Christ, to the many superabounds.  

Romans 5: 15, Concordant New Testament 

I've spent a good deal of my time as a believer struggling to fit in.  Struggling to fit into Christ and His holiness.  Struggling to fit into the example which He gave to us all.  That is, to exemplify Christ Jesus enough that I would be worthy of His saving grace.  The trouble with this line of thinking is that once we buy into it, we'll never get off that hamster wheel of trying to be good enough to deserve all which Jesus has given us.  However, the apostle Paul reminds us that which we have received from Christ is not a loan to be repaid, but the free gift of God {Romans 6:23}.  So, it seems that my struggles in my early years of being a Christian may have been in vain.  I still realized that I was forgiven, I just followed an ages old theology along the way.  The theology which proclaims man as a sinner unable to achieve relationship with Jesus.  The best we can do, we're told, is to be "like" Jesus.  But being like Jesus has never produced a true relationship with Him.  Being like Jesus has never brought us closer to Him.  Being like Jesus is simply a theology which continues to be spoken by one too many pulpit pounders out there.  One thing which many pastors have often overlooked is the man Jesus.  The man Jesus who is, by all intents and purposes, exactly like me.  It is this Jesus who wept, became angry and showed human compassion unto those He ministered to.  This is the human side of Jesus.  I believe that had I chosen to see Him in this way in the early years of my faith that perhaps my struggle to know Him would not have been so prominent.  Jesus is not just the holy Son of God sitting in heaven, but an integral part of my life.  Paul also reveals to us the extent to which Christ remains in us by declaring that it is Jesus Himself who lives in us {Galatians 2:20}.  It is this revelation which introduced me to the man Jesus.  

This One, given up in the specific council and foreknowledge of God, you, gibbeting by the hand of the lawless, assassinate. 

Acts 2: 23, Concordant New Testament.  

Some of the scripture which I turned to in my early search for the gospel on the human side of Christ was spoken by Paul to the authorities of his day after the death of Jesus.  It is Paul who proclaimed that it is "This Man" whom the Roman authorities put to death {Romans 2:23}.  He also describes Jesus as a "Man accredited by God" to those same authorities {Acts 2:22}.  Obviously, Paul knew Jesus not as a celestial being, but as a human man.  Of course, it is this human Jesus which Saul spent many years persecuting before his own revelation of the man Jesus.  What can we take away from this?  Well, as Paul understood, Jesus is not simply sitting in the heavens awaiting His triumphant return.  No, He is actively involved in every part of our lives.  For even if Christ has been revealed in you, one must understand that it is also the human side of Jesus whom you now proclaim to the world.  Jesus could not have walked the earth in human form had He not also carried with Him the thoughts, emotions and feelings of each one of us.  This is Jesus...This is who I am.  When I get annoyed at circumstances around me, I think of how Jesus Himself must have also shared these same feelings.  We have read the scriptures which show us that Jesus wept, became angry and felt compassion.  But He also laughed and celebrated with His disciples the same way that we interact with our friends and neighbors.  This is Jesus...the Man I am.  

For there is one God, and one mediator of God and mankind, a man, Christ Jesus. 

1 Timothy 2: 5, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~