Revelations from the Cross

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Although I do not consider the truth that Jesus is God in the flesh to be the litmus test of one being a Christian, I do have to wonder how anyone could see themselves as being truly evil without this understanding. For example, if to see Jesus is to see God (John 14:9), whom should we see, as Jesus hangs from the cross? When we crucified Jesus, didn’t we crucify God? If not, we certainly are not seeing God when we look at Jesus upon the cross—are we? In my opinion, to the degree we do not see God when we look at Jesus, we lack knowing who God is, because if Jesus is the perfect image of God in human form (Hebrews 1:3), how can we know the invisible, incomprehensible God without seeing Jesus for who he truly is? How is it possible to know God apart from Jesus?

 

What Is Truth?

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Do we know the truth? Pilate once asked Jesus facetiously “What is truth?” as he ended one round of his interrogation of Jesus to go out to the Jewish authorities to say Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against him. Pilate didn’t wait for a reply from Jesus, because he didn’t believe anyone really knew what truth was, at least not in the sense conveyed by Jesus (John 18:37-38). Today, we speak of there being no absolutes, as though that statement were absolutely true, a contradictory statement to be sure, but this doesn’t seem to bother us. We talk of your truth and my truth, and in a world of Political Correctness anything, even contradictory beliefs, can all be true, simply because we say it is so. Is this the truth?

 

Jesus ~ Yahweh ~ I AM…

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If we would allow ourselves to try to understand what our relationship with God was like before the fall of man, what would we see? If we could see that any change God made to reality as it was then, I think we would have to agree that such change would make God vulnerable, in that, he quite naturally accepts responsibility for all that occurs for the things he did. Therefore, when creating mankind God became, or more accurately, God made himself responsible for us—his creation. I believe this is one of the many things that John reveals to us in the Prologue to his Gospel (John 1:1-18).

 

Seeing God’s Glory

Moses once asked God to show him his, i.e. God’s, glory.[1] If we would make the same request of God today, what would we expect to see? Would it be a manifestation of his power? Do we think we would see God seated upon the throne in heaven? Perhaps we may perceive it to be the glorious victory of God over evil when finally all is brought under his authority. What is God’s glory, and what would we actually see, if God chose to reveal his glory to us?

 

Where is God?

If the supreme purpose of mankind is to see God, i.e. to know him, love him and serve him with all of our being, where is he that I might discover him (Job 23:3)?[1] Surely, if it was God’s foremost purpose in creating man that we would know him, he would reveal himself to us, for how can we know or find an invisible God? We might say he is found in his creation, and certainly this is partially true, in that, it is illogical that such order should arise out of chaos. Certainly, nature itself points to a Creator. Men have even worshiped creation, believing God is all and all is God. Yet, in the end we can only say with Job that though the creation does point to a Creator (Romans 1:20), these are but the “extremities of his ways, and we hear only a whisper of him in these” (cp. Job 26:14).

 

What is the Purpose of the Christian Life?

What if the main purpose of being a Christian was not to get out the Gospel?[1] If true, what would this imply? Well, as I see it, it would mean a lot of great big worldwide ministries would not be necessary. But, is it true? First, I should say we are commissioned to preach the Gospel. However, I also need to say this is not the main purpose of my being a Christian. Technically, a non-Christian could spread the Gospel. If it suddenly became a consuming interest of a great many people, the Gospel would be headline news both on TV and in every newspaper around the world. So, technically, just being a Christian is not necessary to spreading the Gospel.