Grace
and peace to all of you in Christ Jesus our Lord and Shepherd!
And a very warm welcome to LivingWalk.com, for all first time visitors! It is our
sincere prayer that here you
will find encouragement and edification in your walk with He who
purchased us for Himself! May His life and glory be increasingly
and wondrously manifest in your lives, as we submit unto
Him in the power of His most Holy Spirit! ...
UNLIKE the original
twelve and many other early disciples, the Apostle Paul never
actually experienced the man Jesus. All that he knew - from that
blinding first encounter on the road to Damascus to the end of
his life - was Jesus as God, the locus and fulfillment of "all
things" in Colossians 1 -
He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For
by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All things were created through Him
and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things
consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He
may have the preeminence. (Colossians 1: 15-18)
Whereas
they ate and drank with Jesus of Nazareth in daily personal
contact here on earth, Paul's revelation and consideration of
Him was as one seated at the right hand of God "in the heavenly
places, far above all principality and power and might and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but
also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1:19-20).
For Paul,
to truly see and affirm Jesus Christ, was to behold the "all in
all" for whom and through whom all things in the past, present
and future must come to fulfillment and fruition. What the
original disciples were permitted by the Spirit to glimpse on
the mount of transfiguration, and what John beheld on the Island
of Patmos (in Revelation), Paul was afforded the language and
'theology' to express.
For Him,
everything exists - without exception - such that the Heavenly
Father might honor and bless his beloved Son; that He might
exalt Him above all else that would be exalted. Through the New
Testament we discover that it is primarily
through the ministry and testimony of Paul that Jesus is
revealed and presented as God.
My
brethren, there is a vast and immeasurable difference between a
man that does god-like things and one who is in fact God. Many
of the prophets of the Old Testament - such as Moses and Elijah
performed god-like acts, controlling nature and the manipulating
the material world in one sense or another. In fact, until His
resurrection, nothing that Jesus did in terms of miracles
outmatched anything seen before. Elijah revived the widow's son
as surely as Jesus raised Lazarus, and Elisha multiplied the pot
of stew as readily as our Lord multiplied the loaves and fishes.
Indeed
there is much evidence that the disciples struggled mightily
with this question of whether the one they were following was
merely a man doing god-like things or very God Himself. "Who are
you?" - was not just something the religious leaders of the day
wrestled with, but also Peter and James and John and all of
those in His immediate company. Was He a prophet? Indeed was He
"the prophet", the one spoken of by Moses? Or something more?
The Lord Himself relieved them of this burden when He declared,
in no uncertain terms, that He was in fact the Son of God. In
declaring this, He was clearly and unmistakably asserting His
divinity, His godhood. Recall that many walked away from Him
over this very issue. And indeed, this is still the only issue
that truly matters for any of us - who we believe that He
is?
For
Paul, from the moment the Lord met him on that Damascus Road,
the issue was settled. Interestingly enough, he was blinded to
all material reality for a time, that he might come to see the
One whom he persecuted elevated in ultimate glory at the right
hand of the Father in heaven. This is where He resides and reigns today my
friends. Yes, He obviously came and experienced life as a human being on
this earth, but it is important now to recognize and consider
Him as God, above all things, shining in ultimate glory.
Is this
then how we consider and relate to Him? Like Paul, is He the
"all in all" in our own lives and experience? Is our admiration
and adoration of Him, essentially limited to Jesus the man; or
do we see Him raised up, drawing all things unto Himself as only
God can do? Which Jesus do we find most compelling - a saintly
man with god-like abilities, a sagacious teacher perhaps, or the very
Son of God for whom all creation was intended?
The
Apostle Paul sees a pre-eminently heavenly Jesus, in all of His
former and even His more endowed glory (by virtue of the
incarnation, cross and resurrection as the firstborn of men into
the household of God). Although they are one and the same, there
is night and day between the carpenter Jesus who walked this
earth and the Jesus portrayed throughout the Book of Hebrews and
Revelation.
God, who
at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by
His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom
also He made the worlds; 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, having become
so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:1-4)
Now I
know that there is some debate on this, but I personally have no
trouble believing that these words are the words of Paul, for in
style and substance they reflect his message perfectly - Jesus
as the heavenly fulfillment of all things. He continues in verse
5, and as you read along, notice how everything bows and falls
before the ultimate fulfillment found in the Son: the ministry
of angels and patriarchs and priests, even human prophets - all
swallowed up and eclipsed by He who Paul calls the "all in all".
Now many scholars will admit than the English language is not
very precise when it comes to expressing ultimacy or
quintessence. Yet in the "all in all" we come as close as we can
to that which is the "most". Jesus, in the end, is the very most
that the Father had to give. He is the author and finisher of
our salvation, the beginning and the end, the supreme One in
whom all life and reality and purpose converges and turns. It is
His glory which shines brighter than any other, for He too is
God.
His face
is the face of God. His hands extend the touch of God upon our
lives. His love shares the very heart of God. His light
represents the wisdom and truth that is God. His very words
uphold and sustain life as only God can. Every living cell in
this universe pulses with vitality because He ordains and sustains
it. Without and apart from Him, there would be no created
reality as we know it, for He made it and holds it all together.
There is no other way around it, my friends - the Christ whom we
serve and love and worship - He is God!
And if
there be any call on this Christian path - be it an evangelical
call, a prophetic call, or a call to repentance and
sanctification - then truly it can only flow from the
inescapable reality of the ultimate divinity of the Lord Jesus
Christ!
Now we
can certainly acknowledge, without reducing anything we have
said above, that it can be useful to consider the humanity of
Jesus, for indeed He was "all man" as well as being "all god".
Yet the recorded example of the perfect man does no more to help
us in practical terms than the Book of Proverbs help us to be
wise. What really counts is the power to attain, the life within
- and even our Lord told His followers that it was better that
He went away (to return to His pre-incarnate glory), for only
then would His presence and power be unlimited and unconstrained
by His humanity.
Certainly there was an earthly Jesus, but consider also how
frequently the Apostle Paul uses the terms heaven and heavenly
throughout his writings. Clearly here is where he thinks our
emphasis and attention should be. It is here in the heavenlies
where the Father is reconciling all things to Himself, in and
through His Son. Here is the final stage, where the final acts
of creation's history are played out in the Book of Revelation.
Here is the true home of the church, and the hope of all who
would follow the
Firstborn into the Household of God.
Dear
brethren, can we ever emphasize this too strongly? Whereas so
many secondary things (doctrines, methods, programs, themes,
etc.) grow old and worn, can we ever be reminded too much of what
our Lord truly is and represents as the Beginning and End, in
the eternal present of God? So many other things, lesser things, seem to be so
important today, when He is really all that matters, and has
ever mattered. Why haven't
we learned the lesson of so many generations and movements that
every vain attempt to add to the "ALL" that He represents can only lead to
idolatry and delusion? Why does He never seem to be enough for some
folks, when He is more than enough for the Father?
