The Man Christ Jesus

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

1 Timothy 2:5-6

There is absolutely no one like Jesus.  He is very God.  He is very man.  He is both at the same time, so He is the only one qualified as God's prophetic voice to speak to and for humanity, to serve as the high priest bringing men to God through salvation by His redeeming blood and to rule as a King bringing God to men in submission to the Divine plan of salvation.  In short, He alone is Lord and Savior.  No!  There is no one like Jesus.  Yet, there will be false Christ's proclaiming themselves to be something they are not.  Figuring out who they are is easy when we understand the uniqueness of the LORD.

It seems the world is rife with those proclaiming another Jesus.  In their version He is a spirit guide who ultimately leads us to a knowledge of our own divinity.  "He is god but we are all god", they exclaim.  All one needs to do is evolve to that higher knowledge and suddenly all will be alright, somehow.  This is the very deception of Eden--"you shall be as gods."  It is the fallacy that we will explore here for a moment as this lie is associated with the spirit of Antichrist.  Will not the liar proclaim, he is god?  "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4)."

John the Apostle warned us to be wary of any teaching the denies the humanity of Jesus.  He gives us the test of the spirits in 1 John 4:2, "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God..."  Satan knew Jesus was fully God.  Had he not led angelic worship services before the Throne of Glory?  Yet, he also knew Jesus was fully man--the New Adam--the one who would crush his kingdom and take back the dominion that was given to the first Adam.  For Jesus to succeed where Adam failed He would need to win that dominion as a man and not rely on the powers of Deity.  This fact seems to come out clearly when considering the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  Jesus would need to conquer the very lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life as a man indwelt by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and not through any power of His own.

Take another quick look at the temptation of Jesus as it is very insightful.  Imagine the hunger Jesus faced after a 40 day fast.  Here the devil says, "command this stone that it be made bread."  What man can speak to rocks and make them bread?  It was as if the adversary was saying, "don't wait on the Father, make your own with your own creative power."  In immediate response, Jesus pointed out that as a man he would live off of every Word of God.  Next, the enemy tested Jesus by tempting Him to jump from the pinnacle of the temple. As God, Jesus could have commanded angelic protection.  This point also comes out at the cross with the statement of having the ability to call legions of angels to assist if needs be.  Finally, he hits him as a man--to take a short cut--the easy route.  Two of the tests directly involved Jesus' divinity as the devil wanted him to be more than a man so he could disqualify this New Adam.  Jesus passed the test, and the Son of Man submitted Himself even to death as any other man--even the death of the cross.  The Lamb had won and the New Adam crushed the devil's power permanently.  Revelation 4-5 records the change of deed ceremony that will soon take place.

That same devil is now busily painting a picture of another Jesus.  Jesus is god, but aren't we all? He pleads with the lost to look within themselves to find that spark of god deep inside.  He has a host of lying fallen beings claiming to be co-equal with Christ and it is certain that all false religion has the original lie of Eden hidden somewhere deep within its twisted theology--you will be as gods.  Scripture is clear--we are not little gods and we will never be anything but redeemed humans glorified in Christ Jesus.  We are men and women so loved that the Son came to a dirty manger and died on a rugged cross to make a way where there was no way. Soon, one proclaiming that he is on a higher evolutionary plane that all can attain will show up with false signs that will deceive many.  Don't be mislead by his mesmerizing deception, this strong delusion.  There is only one Savior who has come in the flesh and is Soon2Come.  Only one reigns and will reign as the ultimate and only Mediator between  God and men.  He is the Man Christ Jesus!

I AM Here...

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness wasupon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3

There are a few things from these precious first three verses of the Bible that seem to apply to our lives if we look carefully through the eyes of the Spirit.  It is certain that there are times when life sometimes just does not seem to make sense at all and it is this point which we will take a few minutes to consider.  In order for us to trust God in those chaotic places on the pathway called life and for there to be some clarity we need to first appreciate God and the way He often works knowing that all He does is for our blessing.

"In the beginning God..."  Such a profound statement.  Can you ever think of a time in existence when He wasn't there working behind the scene?  Now, who invented camouflage (Think tigers, deer, walking sticks, etc...)?  In essence, He is always there but at the time of crisis He seems to be hiding somewhere out of sight, but rest assured God is there.  Where can you go that God is not present?  David plainly answered this for us in Psalm 139:7-12--enough said.  What are you facing that He doesn't know about already?  Nothing!  You see, He was, is, and will be there, and He understood the end from the beginning long before your dilemma manifested itself!

Without form, and void; and darkness...   Such words!  These almost seems like a contradiction following the revelation of God.  If God is there how could there be chaos, emptiness, and darkness?  Let's consider another verse which gives some interesting insight--Matthew 4:1, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."  The Holy Spirit led Jesus to a place that must have seemed like a low point in His life.  While dark times don't seem to be congruent with a God of love, it is His love that brings us to dark times.  He sees the pain and confusion, but He has a lesson for you.  When my wife and I were once flying to Hawaii, the plane came to a storm that was too large to divert around.  Rather than fly into it, the pilot flew above it.  It was amazing!  It was a beautiful sunny day above that storm.  Maybe God is trying to pilot you to a higher place where you can see His glory above the storm?

And the Spirit of God moved...   So the LORD has led you to a valley, one so bad that you think King David named it in Psalm 23.  Elijah had one of those days.  After the great victory against the vain idol, Baal, and his priests, Elijah ran like a baby at a mere threat from Queen Jezebel.  Funny, her name means "Baal exalts" but all she did was bring the prophet to the lowest point of His life.  In a cave miles from the threat he sulked.  It was then that God began to move to get his attention.  Finally the still small voice of the Spirit spoke and prepared Elijah for greater things.  The lie, Baal, just wood and stone, could not exalt like God did!  Elijah was soon caught up by the Spirit into the very presence of GOD. Now that is being exalted! Stop looking at the darkness around you and listen.  That sound you hear is the ever presence of the Holy Spirit moving on your behalf.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  It is certain that when the Spirit moves God is speaking.  The question then is are you listening?  Things sometimes get so tough that we focus on the confusion and not on God.  At those times, the problem seems to preoccupy us that we can think of nothing else.  I once was in such a dark place as this when an Army Chaplain took me to the side and said, "You need to quit worshiping the problem and begin to worship the Problem Solver."  It brought light to that dark place!  At a personal level, Jesus Christ is not Soon2come.  No!  He is already here.