Thinking Jesus

 

Yet, now, being freed from Sin, yet enslaved to God, you have your fruit for holiness.  Now the consummation is life eonian. 

Paul to the Romans 6: 22, Concordant New Testament 

What is it that you know to be true?  We realize that we live in a hospitable atmosphere.  We know that touching a hot stove is not a good thing to do.  We also know for certain that sitting under a falling rock will probably not end well.  These are just a few of the truths which we know to be true in our minds.  Experience has taught us some valuable lessons.  But have you ever had to readjust your thinking on something?  When presented with evidence, we often reconsider our way of thinking.  Well, this is the point of this writing, to present to you the evidence needed for you to take a closer look at Who we know as Christ Jesus.  Now, I grew up in a Christian household, so my own beliefs of Jesus were based upon what I was taught in the church.  I can say with all honesty, the Jesus which the mainstream church proclaims is not necessarily the truth of Christ.  I was raised to believe in a God who I was separated from.  I was living in sin on earth while God and Jesus resided in heaven overseeing my life.  A good friend of mine recently, in joking, compared Jesus we were brought up to believe in as a tattle tale.  There's Jesus in heaven at the right hand of the Father continually pointing His finger at me while proclaiming, "Did you see what Scott just did?"  Of course, the Father knows full well what we do, but this represents my view of God while growing up in the church.  God was more of a judge than a loving Father.  To this day, the mainstream institutional church continues to push the belief that, as sinners, we are constantly in danger of being separated from God.  If this is how you see Jesus, then you need to adjust your thinking as I did.  Because what you once knew to be true is about to be challenged.  

Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be nullified, for us by no means to be still slaving for sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin.  Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, having been roused from among the dead, is no longer dying.  Death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God.  Thus you also, be reckoning yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

Paul to the Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament 

Here's a question I'm sure you'd never hear any mainstream church pastor ask, how is it that you can continue to live in something which is dead?  Indeed, in all my years in the church I've never heard that question asked.  However, this question is key to adjusting our thinking about Jesus.  My own personal "Aha" moment came during a Easter Sunday service at my old church I attended.  The pastor had just finished the traditional story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.  He had died, He proclaimed, for the forgiveness of our sins.  In his next breath, the pastor proceeded to invite anyone who felt the guilt of unconfessed sin in their lives to come forward for prayer.  I sat there dumbfounded.  All which I had been taught seemed to not be true any longer.  That was my last visit to the church I had once known.  Not long after that I was introduced by a good friend to the writings of the apostle Paul.  My eyes were opened to a new truth about Jesus.  It is Paul who introduced me into the knowing of Christ Jesus in me {Paul to the Galatians 2:20, Paul to the Romans 6:8}.  The revelation from the Father I was experiencing now presented to me a Jesus who was here not to judge, but to save {Johns Account 3:16-17}.  My own understanding about Jesus had been adjusted from that of an overseer to His truth of a union life with He and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  How is it that I could continue in my own guilt over sin if Jesus had given Himself to put it to death {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}?  Indeed, my own thinking of Jesus has been changed.  

~Scott~