Nature of Jesus - Friday

Webster's dictionary: Grace - unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.

God has shown me grace and mercy.

John wrote: Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
God has established a relationship with me, even when I didn't deserve it. I think the verse is saying he piled grace on top of grace, mercy on top of mercy.

He gave me the rules to show me who I really am. Understanding.

He gave me grace and truth to show I'm accepted no matter what I am. Relationship.

Paul wrote: Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”

I think he's saying to me, "keep your relationships healthy. Don't argue or complain - be graceful and merciful towards others. Be like me."

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Fridays | My relationships are good, and God will build them up
- Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy
- And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

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Nature of Jesus - Thursday

As I'm writing this, I realize that the title "Nature of Jesus" is really in error. I don't know his true nature. I only know a small sliver of what I can understand from the bible and my experience. He created everything and holds it together. I'm only something he created.

Here is what I understand...

God created a people to be a light to the whole world, so that all might possibly connect with him. 

That people - the Jews - were abused by all the other powerful people on earth.

God promised to send a rescuer to them, to set them free. They called that rescuer "Messiah".

They waited and predicted and talked about the rescuer. They wanted things to be set right.

They were hungry for the Messiah - and he finally came.

John wrote: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus came in a way that was unexpected and with a message of acceptance, which many people didn't like. They wanted judgement, he offered forgiveness. They wanted revenge, he offered peace. Most rejected him.

To those who accepted him, Paul wrote: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

I think Paul is saying to be very careful not to get pulled into judgement, which is a very real possibility - at least it is for me. He is reminding them (and me) that God will fill them and use them for good in the way he works - with acceptance, forgiveness and peace.

God, you didn't come to judge people. I need your help to not do it myself.

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Thursdays | My heart is hungry for good, and God will fill it
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled
- Give us today our daily bread

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Nature of Jesus - Wednesday

Why did Jesus go to all the trouble of leaving his place of ruling the universe, become human, be rejected, and end up being killed? 

Because it was worth it.

John wrote: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

He came so I - and everyone who is willing - could be part of his family.

Paul wrote to the Philippians: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is the head of the family, the owner of the universe. 

I want to be in that family, but I have nothing to bargain with. My only hope is to be rescued - I don't have the capability or resources to join on my own.

Following up on my reference yesterday to what Paul wrote to the Romans: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So what does God require for me to gain eternity? The desire to be with him, and the belief he will accept me. 

God, I'm glad you have the ability to set things right - because I sure don't.

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Wednesdays | My influence is in chaos, and God wants to set things right
- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth
- Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

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Nature of Jesus - Tuesday

As I said yesterday, Jesus gave up his status to be with mankind for a period of time. He came to the people he created, and for the most part, they rejected him.

John wrote: The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 

Paul wrote to the Philippians: Jesus made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!

Did Jesus know that people would reject him? Yes.

700 years earlier, Isaiah wrote on the same theme. This is what he predicted about God's servant who would come to us: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

So God's kingdom came to earth in the form of a person who was misunderstood, rejected and ultimately killed.

What does this have to do with me? I'm a believer - I'm glad he came.

My relationship with God is often in chaos. I want to relate to God and be close - and I also want to get away from him and be in my own darkness.

There is part of me that wants him to go away, to leave me be. There are those moments where I don't care that he gave up everything to reach out to me, that he died for me, that he lives for me now.

As Paul wrote to the Romans: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

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Tuesdays | My relationships are in chaos, and God wants to change them
- Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted
- Your kingdom come

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The Nature of Jesus - Monday

I'm continually fascinated by Jesus. I guess when God becomes a human being with the intent to connect with us, I should expect no less. I want to spend this week considering who he is.

I'm looking at the first chapter of the gospel written by John and Paul's letter he wrote to the church in Phillippi (eastern Macedonia).

John starts out his account of Jesus with this:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Everything in the universe was made by him.

Life comes from him.

He is shining in the darkness - into my chaos - and my chaos can't block him out.

Paul wrote:

Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Jesus gave up his status, authority, power to enter into the world and serve us - to serve me. Not to judge or condemn me, but to reach out to me, to rescue me.

God, come into my darkness and rescue me.

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Mondays | My heart is in chaos, and God wants to change it
- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God
- Our Father in heaven, your name is holy

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