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Is He Serious?

July 21, 2009 in Faith, Jesus with 1 Comment

Scripture humbles us. It shows us how little we know and how little we are. Believe it or not, I’ve grown to love Scripture for that reason.

Those for whom Scripture is important have their favorite passages, and our fidelity to the text is important to us. And it should be. But before we emphasize this over that, we need to be certain that there is a certain level of consistency to our treatment of God’s Holy Word.

An honest consideration of the sayings of Jesus should leave us frequently asking, “Is he serious?”  His message was that hard-hitting. It was radical in so many ways. But before we label some of his statements as hyperbolic, let’s think about them.

So I’d like to look at a few and discuss them. I hope you’ll join me.

Seeing God

March 11, 2009 in Jesus with 0 Comments

In what we call The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8, ESV). Many, myself included, have wondered just what exactly Jesus was getting at in that statement. Most seem resigned to the fact that this is an afterlife promise for the faithful. While those who make it to heaven will indeed see God, I don’t believe that such was what Jesus meant.

Jesus came to the earth as a visible manifestation of God (John 1:1, 14; 1 Timothy 3:16; Colossians 1:15-20, 2:9). Jesus’ ministry was a declaration of his divine identity (John 8:42-58). Unfortunately, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11, ESV).

When he uttered the words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” he was suggesting that it was going to take a certain kind of heart in order to see him for who he really was. The tainted, defiled and prejudiced heart would ignore the evidence, but those whose hearts were “pure” would see him for who he was and believe on him. He was God, and the pure in heart would see him as such.

The same holds true today, in more ways than merely accepting the premise of his divinity. If not careful, we might find ourselves believing that he is God’s son, but still not see him for who he really is: our way, truth and life (John 14:6). It’s easy to formulate an image of Jesus for ourselves that isn’t of Scripture. It seems like some want Jesus to be white and Republican, but he was neither. Purity of heart will help us to see that!
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