“We don’t label people like we used to, with our handy pre-printed tags. We even tried doing this with Jesus, but He blew our definitions apart” 2 Cor 5:16 (The Word on the street translation)
Jesus blew our definitions apart … and still does.
Jesus simply did not fit the religious expectations … and still doesn’t.
He did not qualify for any of the official religious positions that were available … yet God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every other name. His background was a bit dodgy, too dodgy for some to associate with Him … yet before Abraham was, He is. His authority was questioned because He did not submit Himself under the ‘covering’ of any of the groups of His day … yet the Father acknowledged Him and that was all the recognition He needed. The religious structures of His day could not contain Him … and still He does not dwell in temples or organisations made by human hands.
If there was anyone who should have recognized who Jesus really was, it should have been those who dedicated their lives to the study of the prophetic scriptures … yet, being absorbed in interpreting the past and defining their future hope, they missed the present – the greatest event that occurred right in front of their eyes.
John 5:39 “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me!
How many precious believers are stuck in the same trap today – refining their doctrine; neutralized by a future expectation that contributes nothing to their present encounter with God.
When John wrote the letter we know as 1John, he does not muse on the days gone past, those awesome days when Christ was still in the flesh with them. No. He overflows with excitement about an experience that is present and available to all. He is the same one who wrote: “There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.” (John 21:25) One would have imagined that he would have spend the rest of his life recording these words and deeds – I mean these are the words and deeds of God manifested in the flesh! Yet, he doesn’t! He discovers a greater message than just recording historic facts – introducing his audience into a living present encounter with I AM. (Not ‘I used to be’, or ‘I will be’). He discovered the God who blows our definitions, our doctrines and our structures apart.
There is only one definition of man – Christ
All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. Col 3:9 MSG
…until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. Eph 4:13
I think it’s time that we blow every other definition apart! I think it’s time for us to see from His point of view.
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Amen you guy’s, this is just sooo beautiful!! We are all Christ containers, and can now know each other according to the spirit only!
Now we live and move and have our being in Him only, living Life because of His faith, and comprehending our unity as all was created in His fullness and completeness! GLORYYYYY!!
Thank you Andre for your beautiful eyes, tangible life knows no substitute!“The Word that was from the beginning, what initial reports concerning Him have reached our ears, what we indeed bore witness to with our own eyes to the point that we became irresistibly attracted to Him; what it was that met our gaze and the touch of our hands, yes, life dawned! (Gr.psallo, to touch the string) The same life that was with the Father from the beginning, now dawned on us! The infinite life of the Father became visible before our eyes in a human person! This life now finds expression in a fellowship union with the Father and the son that is without limit or interruption. I am writing this so that joy may be yours in full measure. 1 John 1:1,2,4.
Isn’t it just wonderful how seeing Him, changes our perspective of ourselves and others. Seeing His limitlessness, removes the boundaries from our lives and the restrictions we’ve placed on others; seeing His place of blameless innocence before the Father, gives us boldness to approach without any sense of guilt or inferiority and invite others without hesitation … beholding, we become.
“Whenever Christ – who is our live – is revealed, we are revealed with Him in glory!” Col 3:4
I enjoyed the magazine post about the face of Christ – how EVERYTHING God the Father defined in detail in one Face! He has come and shined this light into our hears!
Thank you Andre – Awesome – yet the Father acknowledge Him and that was all the recognition He needed (we needed in Him)
Luke 24:27 – and Beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets He explained to them with all the writings concerning Himself (and ourselves)
Col.2:2,3 – So that their hearts would be comforted, because we have been knitted together with strong ties of love, and in everything, of the wealth of the certainty of the understanding, in knowledge of the mystery of God, and of Christ, in Whom are all the stored up treasure of wisdom and knowledge.