We're drawn to people who understand us. Those people who seem to "get inside our skin" and see things from our perspective and understand our thoughts earn an audience with us.
The Jesus that many people believe in isn't that kind of individual. A Jesus who is "fully God in human form" is anything but understanding of my human struggle. A Jesus who is really Creator God in skin has all the powers of the universe at His disposal and cannot be tempted or damaged in any way. There is no "game" to life because the outcome has already been determined - if this is who Jesus really is.
There is a much different, and far more compelling, picture of Jesus in Hebrews:
"In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5;7-9)
We can easily identify with One who prayed with "loud crying and tears." Times of agony are a shared human experience, and each of us can testify to lessons learned through seasons of trial and suffering.
Jesus was perfected through the agony of life's trials, and as such became "the source of eternal salvation" to all who obey Him. Perfection came through a refining process; it was not an instant "given" that He would have enjoyed if He were "fully God in human form". Perfection was the result of a process; not an inherent right.
You are I are in the midst of a process that will ultimately lead to perfection. In His infinite perfection, our Creator and Father - the Lord Yahweh - cannot understand our human weakness and struggle. His Son, our Lord Jesus, however, fully understands because of the shared struggle with us, and can fully appropriate all the powers of heaven for us because of His victory and access to our Father.
I pray that life is a pleasant and happy experience today, but from experience I know that struggles and difficulties are at least as likely. In the midst of it all remember and be encouraged by the fact that you have a Savior who knows the process and has come out victorious. He knows and He is eager to help.
Steve
The Jesus that many people believe in isn't that kind of individual. A Jesus who is "fully God in human form" is anything but understanding of my human struggle. A Jesus who is really Creator God in skin has all the powers of the universe at His disposal and cannot be tempted or damaged in any way. There is no "game" to life because the outcome has already been determined - if this is who Jesus really is.
There is a much different, and far more compelling, picture of Jesus in Hebrews:
"In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5;7-9)
We can easily identify with One who prayed with "loud crying and tears." Times of agony are a shared human experience, and each of us can testify to lessons learned through seasons of trial and suffering.
Jesus was perfected through the agony of life's trials, and as such became "the source of eternal salvation" to all who obey Him. Perfection came through a refining process; it was not an instant "given" that He would have enjoyed if He were "fully God in human form". Perfection was the result of a process; not an inherent right.
You are I are in the midst of a process that will ultimately lead to perfection. In His infinite perfection, our Creator and Father - the Lord Yahweh - cannot understand our human weakness and struggle. His Son, our Lord Jesus, however, fully understands because of the shared struggle with us, and can fully appropriate all the powers of heaven for us because of His victory and access to our Father.
I pray that life is a pleasant and happy experience today, but from experience I know that struggles and difficulties are at least as likely. In the midst of it all remember and be encouraged by the fact that you have a Savior who knows the process and has come out victorious. He knows and He is eager to help.
Steve
posted by steve @ 3:34 PM
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