Jesus

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

Matthew 1:21*

          The Lord’s human name occurs 983 times in the Word of God. Two thirds of these are in the gospels where it is used most often in the narratives and very rarely in direct address. “Jesus” almost always appears in combination with other titles such as “Christ” or “Lord” when found in the epistles. However, it appears unadorned with any additional title all but six times in the gospels. The most logical explanation for this is that the histories of Christ’s life focus on the reality of His physical presence while the doctrinal books emphasize the relevance of His advent.

          Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua and literally means “Savior.” There was nothing unusual or unfamiliar about this common name in the Roman Empire. Many people hailed by that name to the extent that His detractors found it necessary to call him “Jesus of Nazareth” in order to single Him out.

          The same is true today. The name of Jesus is used as a curse by Christ-rejecters, but speaks of a wonderful Savior to those who love Him. The big difference is the reality of the encounter. For those who do not know Jesus, His name means nothing at all.  To those who love Him, it's beautiful!

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

In a believer’s ear!

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,

And drives away his fear.

                   John Newton (1725-1807)

*see also John 12:21, 19:19, 21:25; Ephesians 6:24; 2 Peter 1:1 plus 936 other references

Image of God

Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
2 Corinthians 4:4

In the original blueprint of man’s creation, the design called for a creature made in the image of God(Genesis 1:27). It was not the physical distinctions of the humanoid form that set Adam apart from the animals. After all, God is a Spirit and has no visible shape of His own. What was really unique was his power to deal in abstracts and reach conclusions.

A dog cannot see beauty or enjoy art. Right and wrong or even right and left are for beyond the comprehension of even the most intelligent ape. It is man’s capacity to reason that allows him to make intelligent choices. This is necessary to enjoy communion with God.

However, something went terribly wrong after the die was cast. The first man chose to disobey his maker thus distorting the divine likeness. As a result, he came to resemble the god of this age more than the true God of the universe. Now, when human history is recorded it is its wars and injustices that stand out, showing man’s weakness and failure of character. The image of God had become terribly flawed.

Christ is the Image of God, the high example of what the Creator's plan was for Adam’s race. If holiness was too intangible a concept for people to understand, it took shape in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s love and grace had physical form that could be seen, heard, and felt by those who lost sight of the original design. Truth, justice, and mercy became solid realities that demanded to be dealt with.

Man’s marred image of God can be remade by the Savior. The work of grace not only covers the ugliness of sin but transforms the behavior into the image of Christ. In this way, the old order of how things were supposed to be can be finally regained forever.

The Shadow of a Great Rock

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Isaiah 32:2

          One curious fact that I still remember from third grade geography class was that in the Sahara Desert it gets to be 120 °F in the shade. “Boy,” I thought to myself, “I bet people try to stay out of the shade as much as possible.”

My impressions of the desert greatly changed when as an adult I saw one for myself. On the arid wasteland the sun is so intense you can fry an egg on a rock. There’s a lot of wind but it doesn’t cool. It just pushes hot dry air on your face. No trees grow anywhere and the only shade that can be found is what you bring for yourself.

The only relief from the hostility of the elements is found in the mountains at the very edge of the desert. Great walls of rock rise high above the burning sand and break the fury of the furnace-like air. Overhangs and huge cracks in the stone capture the coolness of the previous evening and the shadow of a great rock can provide a place of refuge from the heat even at noonday.

This sin-ravished world is like the desert. It’s a hard and unsympathetic place. We are like sun scorched travelers who are burned by their own ungodliness, as well as by the sinfulness of others. When the burden gets really heavy and life seems almost unbearable, people don’t want religion or even reformation, they want rest. Jesus said, “Come to me... and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

 Beneath the cross of Jesus
          I fain would take my stand,
          the shadow of a mighty rock
          within a weary land;
          a home within the wilderness,
          a rest upon the way,
          from the burning of the noontide heat,
          and the burden of the day.

                             Elizabeth Clephane (1830-1869)

Immanuel

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

Matthew 1:23*

Getting three wishes granted is the stuff fairy tales are made of. However, in the real world, only two men since time began were given the opportunity to have anything they wanted and they had only one chance to get it right.

Solomon was the first and he requested wisdom. This choice so pleased God that the king also received power, long life, and fabulous wealth. The second didn’t expect much from God so He turned down the offer all together.

The year was 753 B.C. and the political situation in Jerusalem was desperate. The armies of Syria and Northern Israel had just made an alliance to invade and conquer Judah. Just as there seemed no way out of a bad situation, God sent Isaiah to the unbelieving King Ahaz with very good news. The threatened attack would never take place. In fact, the powerful Northern enemy would itself cease to exist in 65 years. To show the certainty of deliverance, Isaiah told the King that the Lord would do any miracle he desired (Isaiah 7:1-14).

“No don’t bother, I won’t ask,” was Ahaz’s response.

“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign,” the prophet declared, “Immanuel will come.”

It was the greatest thing that anyone could ever wish for. Immanuel means, “God with us” and that meant the distance between man and his Creator would be gone forever. Born of a virgin, the God-man would be totally unique and would come bringing deliverance for all people.

The sad thing was that Ahaz lost in every way. He never got his heart’s desire and he never saw God’s promise. Because of spiritual apathy, even people today pass up life’s most wonderful opportunity. They miss knowing Immanuel and the deliverance from destruction He offers.

*See also Isaiah 7:14, 8:8

Finisher of Faith

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1, 2

Most Christians know all too well what the Lord expects of them in the Christian life - break with sin and follow the will of God. However, the question that most people don’t have the answer for is how to do it.

Hebrews tells us that it’s by “looking unto Jesus.” If we keep Him in view, the victory will come without striving for it. Unfortunately, a lot of folks do just the opposite.

Books and even Christian counselors tend to put all the attention on the problem at hand. However, when we focus in on the sin, we get a closer look at it. Often it seems bigger, uglier, and more insurmountable than we first thought, so some vices are just not overcome.

The Bible says to forget the things that are behind and reach forward to what’s ahead - looking only to Jesus (Philippians 3:13). Christ provides the power to do it; it doesn't depend on us. Not only is He the source and originator of our faith, He is also the Finisher of it. He makes it perfect.

There’s not one kind of faith for salvation and another to spiritually grow. Faith is nothing more and nothing less than agreeing with God that what He says is true. When we read in the Word that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life, we respond by saying, “Yes, Lord, I agree.” When the Holy Spirit tells us that the sin in us makes us worthy of hell, the answer is the same: “Yes Lord, I agree.”

Our mind, actions, and attitudes need to agree with God. But how is that done?

The Lord does it. It is He who gives us the power to simply believe. If we can trust Him for our soul’s salvation, we can also look to Jesus to put the finishing touches on our faith. After all, He's the Finisher of our Faith.

Author of Faith

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

Salvation is not for sale. You can’t buy it by being good enough, going to church or doing religion. It can’t even be bought with a pound of faith (or however you try measuring it by quantity).

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Nothing can save apart from God’s unmerited love. Nothing means just that - not good works and not even faith.

It’s true that faith is involved in the saving process but it doesn't in itself save. Think about a light bulb in your house. To turn it on you need to flip the switch, but that only works when the electrical energy is already on line.  

God’s grace is like the light plant (the source of power) and faith as the switch (the connection). By believing the Word of God, you are simply agreeing with Him and that is the basis of fellowship. This then allows Him to save and change your life.  

Just as a person can’t boast about lighting up a room when he turns on the switch, so there is no reason to feel proud of your ability to believe. The strange thing, however, is that people do just that. They impress themselves with their capacity to trust and figure that they really made God’s day because they decided to believe Him. 

How foolish. They don’t realize that they’re so totally destitute of the glory of God that they don’t even have faith that they can call their own.         

If you have any faith at all it is because the Lord Jesus gave it to you. He is the author of your faith, its source and origin.  Apart from Him you have nothing.

Belief is born when you focus on Him. Looking to the person of Christ, His death on the cross and the power of His resurrection are all part of the activity of faith. It is not the technique of believing that matters; it’s the object of faith that’s all important. Where is the boasting then?

There is none. We can't boast because Jesus even installed the light switch of faith in us. Remember, He's the Author of Our Faith.

The Angel of the Lord

When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!"

Judges 13:21-22*

One God, but He is revealed to us in three separate ways. So teaches the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Christ is the “second person” of the Trinity. He distinguishes Himself from the Father and Holy Spirit because He has visible, physical form.

         

Being God, the Lord Jesus has no beginning or end. He always existed. So, what did He do with His time between creating the universe and the advent at Bethlehem? Christ did what we know Him for today. He visited His creation.

         

The Old Testament describes many physical appearances of God that theologians like to call “theophanies.” Since Jesus is the physical manifestation of the Deity, then we can conclude that Christ came to earth before He was born in the manger.

         

The most common theophany we come across is the appearance of the Angel of the LORD. The title comes up in a dozen occasions in the Old Covenant and in them, He speaks as God and identifies Himself as such.

         

It was the Angel of the LORD that appeared to Moses in the burning bush when He called Himself the great “I AM.” The very ground Where He appeared was Holy, so Moses took off his shoes. When Abraham saw the pre-incarnate Christ, he named the place “The-Lord-Will-Provide.” Hagar called the spot of her encounter “You-Are-The-God-Who-Sees.”

         

Christ appeared in angelic form to Gideon, David, and others. He was not idle as He waited for the fullness of time to come. After being born of a woman and redeeming the lost creation, He still is not idle. He makes Himself known to men and women today in special ways. Many of them, like Moses, fall down on their knees, for they know that the ground of their meeting is Holy.

*See also Genesis 16:9-13, 22:11, 15; Exodus 3:2; Judges 6:11-14, plus 46 other references

The Word of Life

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life

1 John 1:1

Words are not alive. To a bored teenager enduring English class, words can be as dead as the inscription engraved in stone on some ancient tomb. Even literature which is deemed immortal often sits dead and dust covered for years until a reader takes it down from the shelf and puts his own life into it.

On the other hand, Jesus Christ is the living, moving, Word of Life. Purpose and enthusiasm are gained from knowing Him. Life and living before that encounter seems just an illusion.

Counterfeit Christianity seems dead by comparison to true faith because it is. Knowing Christ produces a hunger and thirst for His fellowship that ritualism can never imitate. The redeemed of the Lord long to see their Savior because He is the source of their existence. However, due to the present placement of where things are at in God’s present plan, the priority is faith over sight.

Believers cling to the written Word because it is a vehicle for knowing the true living Word. Through scripture there is communion with Christ, a defining of direction and a strengthening of faith. The world can’t understand it but the Bible isn’t an ordinary book. It is the Reader’s Digest version of the Word of Life.

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.
                                    Philip P. Bliss

Servant

…But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

Philippians 2:7*

          Seven Hundred years before the Savior walked the hills of Galilee, the prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 52:13-15). Even the scribes and doctors of the law of Jesus’ day had serious problems with the prophecy. It was clear that God’s Servant was to suffer and be cruelly treated in order to justify many but other prophesies presented the Messiah as an all-powerful king. To explain the apparent contradiction some suggested that God would send two different anointed ones.

The religious leaders failed to see the two separate missions of Christ. Before He could reign and rule over Israel, He first had to stoop to conquer. When the Lord came to die on Calvary, He was the Servant. When He comes the second time it will  be as King of Kings.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He fed the hungry, attended the sick, and washed dusty feet. Finally, when his time of service was over, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8).

Men became slaves to the Devil by emulating their owner. Lucifer is a prideful creature who has the power to hold in bondage all those given to self-exaltation. It is deception to covet power and authority at all cost; It’s bad business even to gain the whole world and lose one's soul (Matthew 16:26).

Our master told his disciples “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). Strange logic it seems until one realizes that there is nothing greater than being like the Lord. Being conformed to the image of Christ is glorious.

*see also Isaiah 42:1, 52:13, 53:11; Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13 and 26, 4:30

The Word of God

He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

Revelation 19:13

          Ask any Sunday school child and unless he is totally attention deficit he should be able to tell you that the Bible is the Word of God. The phrase is well understood and the New Testament uses the term thirty-six times to refer to scripture.

         

Yet the book of Revelation gives Christ this title just before the great battle of Armageddon is described. There is no contradiction. In one sense, they are two forms of the same thing.

         

The Bible is the written Word of God. It was given to reveal the nature and will of God to the world. In essence, what the book says is that since sin separates people from fellowship with their Creator, God needs to provide a way for them back to Himself. Jesus is seen throughout Holy Writ as the source of salvation, redeeming men and women from judgment. In story, symbol, and illustration, the Lord Jesus Christ is presented over and over again. Even Old Testament law was given to be a tutor to bring folks to Christ so that they might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).

         

The Lord Jesus is the living Word of God. He is the whole revelation of God in bodily form. When the elements of the world finally melt away on Judgment Day, there will be no need to preserve the Bible in scrolls, books, or on computer chips. The Word of God will always be alive and well and living among the redeemed of earth in heaven.

The Brightness of God’s Glory

Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Hebrews 1:3

          How do you go about describing color to a blind man? Words just can’t do it and the sense of touch is wholly inadequate to relate what it is like. The only means to communicate this knowledge would be to give the gift of sight, without which all theory about light is meaningless.

          How do you go about describing an infinite God to a finite mind? A person born in a three dimensional world cannot begin to comprehend a Supreme Being made up of neither atoms nor energy but capable of creating both. God and His glory are totally incomprehensible for humankind unless He chooses to reveal Himself to them.

          In ancient times, God used the vehicle of light to communicate His presence. Created on the first day, light is not the essence of God but it is somehow always intricately associated with Him. A pillar of light guided the Israelites through the wilderness, the Shekinah glory shown over the Ark of the Covenant, and Mount Sinai flashed with God’s holy fire. However, no matter how intense light may appear, it is only the shadow of what His true glory is really like.

          Christ is effluence of divine radiance and the gift of sight by which the creature can finally see his Creator. In Him there is no darkness at all.

          The unconverted eye will never see God because the spiritually lost are totally blind. But for those who are saved by grace, those who are given eyes of faith to see, the focus will forever be on the Lord, who is the Brightness of God’s Glory.

The Dayspring from on High

Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Luke 1:78-79

Malaria is a terrible disease. I know. I had it. Look up the symptoms in an encyclopedia: high fever, severe chills, uncontrollable shaking, and sweat so profuse that you soak the sheets, the blanket, and the mattress. However, the worst part of the illness is never on the list; No one ever mentions it.

When I had malaria, I went almost three days without sleep. One of life's simplest comforts was denied to me by this horrible disease. By far the worst part was enduring the nights. I heard every tick of the clock, and felt every beat of my heart. My mind raced, but time stood still in the darkness and refused to move. I longed for sleep but when that was not possible, I longed for the dawn. When an empty eternity finally passed away, morning broke on the horizon and lighted up the world. I felt easy. I could rest. There was great comfort in that Dayspring.

At the birth of John the Baptist, his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy. He foretold that his son would be a prophet of the Highest and more importantly, he announced the coming of the Dayspring from on High - Jesus Christ.

The Jewish nation had passed through a long agonizing night. Four Gentile empires had ravished the Jewish people, yet no prophet of the Lord had come to speak a word in over 400 years. Herod the Great was the cruel and murderous despot who ruled the land at that time. The faithful were weary from waiting for light.

The Dayspring from on High offered them peace and comfort, just as He does today to all those who are tired and weighted down with sin. 

The Author of Eternal Salvation

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him

Hebrews 5:9

When it comes to salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ wrote the book. He’s its author. He thought it up. He is its source. He alone saves. Without Christ, mankind is hopelessly lost.

Read the scriptures: “I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11).

 “Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; For there is no savior besides Me” (Hosea 13:4). 

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

There is one Lord, one God, and one Author of Salvation.

 Christ also defines the terms of salvation. It is eternal. Not just an escape from punishment, it is a condition that stays in effect forever: “But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced Forever and ever” (Isaiah 45:17).

                               Oh! The height and depth of His boundless love,

                               And His mercy who can tell,

                               When He came to the cross from the throne above

                                To save our souls from hell!

                                Salvation! Salvation! Vast, full and free;

                                Through the precious blood of the Son of God

                                Who was slain on Calvary.

                                                                             T.D.W. Muir (1855 -1933)

*See also Hebrews 2:10