The Claim Of Jesus: More Than Just An Example

Without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Hebrews 11:6

Faith as a grain of mustard seed....

Matthew 17:20

     In yesterday' blog I asked the question: "Is Jesus really a Christian?" Some may object to the question and condemn me for asking such a question. A second question is: " Are we able or ought we as Christians to enter in every respect into the experience of Jesus and make Him in every respect our example?" Let us take for the moment this difficulty: The Messianic consciousness of Jesus. Think upon this: Jesus, this Person, is the One we are asked to take as our example and this Person thought that He was the heavenly Son of Man and is and was to be the final Judge of all the earth. We might overcome this difficulty by adapting in our life the kind of character that He displayed in His. That would be good but does not overcome the fact of this claim of Jesus for it was and is a lofty claim. Liberalism in Christianity has become so constrained as this to believe that this claim of Jesus was and is unjustified and places upon Jesus' character moral stain. This Jesus, this One, was so far removed from the path of humility and sanity as to believe that eternal destinies of the world were committed into His hands. Yes, they were and are as Jesus manifested in His life here on earth. This Jesus, the Son of God is more than just an example, for if all He is just merely an example, He is not a worthy example: for He claimed to be far more. 

     Okay! Here is the rub! Faith, and should we put our faith in this One who claimed to be the judge of the entire world. This blog is all about faith, changing from the inside/out so allow me to define faith in this way: Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense: they are two different things for one stands in relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Jesus never in what He said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and revelation sense reaches where common sense fails. I am not speaking about "blind" faith for this is not the type of faith that an Authentic Christian has, it is not Authentic Christian Faith. Our faith has an object and that object is Jesus Christ. Faith works on a personal line as the whole purpose of God is to make the ideal faith real in His children. 

     If we only reach a faith by common sense we have missed the fact that there is common sense in this life, but does not have the revelation of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith, godly faith, is an active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first: this looks on the surface to be mad, but not if we venture into the word of God: the Bible. We do not use head faith, we use heart faith and that comes by building upon a right relationship with Jesus. 

     Until we come to know Jesus God is as mere abstraction and we cannot have faith: so we must educate our faith until the nature of our faith comes to know and believe that Jesus is the object of our faith and is real in our lives. Jesus made another statement that seems to many to be so obscure, so wrong: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Jesus is simply saying that He is God, not just some mirror image of God, but the actual creator God. This claim may seem outlandish until you come to know Him and have a right relationship with Him. Our faith is to be the whole sum of man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 

     God is not great because we say He is great: God is Great! Period! We only acknowledge His greatness. This we do by acknowledging the One whom He sent forth into this world to die for sin, this sin debt man owes to God. God paid this debt once for all time. Your debt is paid, that is, if you recognize that you are a debtor, a sinner, and in need of salvation from this debt of sin. You can have your debt paid for you by repenting of your sin(s) and believing upon Jesus Christ as your Savior. God will by His Mercy and Grace forgive you and adopt you into His family. God is offering: will you accept His offer?

When Thou saidst, See ye My face;

    my heart said unto Thee, Thy face

will I seek.

                  Psalm 27:8

Common sense use it in this life: Revelational sense for eternity.

Richard L. Crumb