Who, being the Effulgence of His glory and Emblem of His assumption, besides carrying on all by His powerful declaration, making a cleansing of sin, is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heights.
Hebrews 1: 3, Concordant New Testament
The question was raised the other day of if we truly know the man Jesus. Certainly we know OF Him, but do we truly know Him as He is? For many, Christ Jesus remains simply a figure, an image which they perceive as Jesus. Many Christian bibles and publications are filled with images of the best image of Jesus we can conjure up. Even the streaming Christian show The Chosen, which I feel is one of the best depictions of the life of Jesus in His ministry, holds true to the traditional physical version of Jesus. This is the description of Christ which has been pushed by the church for centuries. A bearded man leading His disciples across the land. For much of the world, this is the Jesus they have come to know. My friend reminded me the other day that the worlds view of Jesus is shrouded, possibly in what we have been taught about Him {John 14:7}. I feel that it is important to point out here that it is one thing to know about Jesus, and yet another thing to truly know Him. Unfortunately, much of what the world knows of Jesus fits in the latter category. This is the Jesus I grew up knowing. The Jesus of the bible. The Jesus someone else taught me. Needless to say, this version of Jesus is very impersonal. We rarely bring a personal connection to One we only know of. It's akin to knowing someone as an acquaintance and knowing them as a friend. The Jesus I have come to know is my friend. The Jesus I grew up hearing of was simply an acquaintance, someone I had heard stories of yet never truly had come to know. This is the Jesus much of the world knows today. We have become satisfied knowing of Him and what He looks like. This ultimately leads us to, as I wrote in my previous post, a counterfeit version of Jesus.
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. And henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.
John 14: 7, Concordant New Testament
In my last post, I wrote of the counterfeit AI Jesus which people can log in to a computer and ask Jesus anything they desire. How cool is that? Well, I have never used this AI Jesus and I talk to Jesus each and every day. How is that? Because I have come to know that it is Jesus who resides in me. This is the indwelling Christ which the apostle Paul speaks to in Galatians {Galatians 2:20}. This Jesus in me is not simply an acquaintance, but One I know personally. I am not too concerned with His physical appearance, but with what He means to my life. I know of His works which the scriptures have documented, but I also know the man Jesus. As it is, the man Jesus is my own identity. Jesus is who I am. Taking Paul's passage in Galatians literally, we can come to this conclusion. I am Christ who dwells in me. He shows Himself through me. I hesitate to even use the word "me" because this may denote that I continue to live as a individual, which is not the case. That man has died, as Paul pointed out {Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:8}. What remains is who I am now. What remains is Jesus. This is the Jesus I know.
"I and the Father, We are one"
John 10: 30, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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