Will the real Jesus please stand up? We really must allow the Holy Spirit to show us our hearts as we discover the real Jesus again … and for some, praise the Lord, for the first time!
But who was He? And who is He now? Isn’t He more than the babe in the manger we see each Christmas? Unfortunately, to many, those who do not oppose Him, but have yet to surrender to Him, He is just the sweet and gentle babe, harmless and cute, in whose honour we set aside a special day in the year. Nothing more.
If you were to ask people on the street their opinion concerning who Jesus was, you might be surprised at the depth of ignorance concerning what the Bible says about Jesus.
Today, when the name of Jesus is mentioned, people’s minds are clouded with various conflicting images.
They have heard of the Jesus preached by the prosperity kings – the Jesus who obviously sees no problem with these people lining their pockets at the expense of others. This Jesus, they preach, is the key to wealth and prosperity. Indeed, He certainly is for them!
They have heard of the Jesus preached by the hyper-fundamentalists – the champions of religion – they show us a Jesus who is more concerned with the outward appearance, whether you look right and act right in terms of whatever set of rules are in vogue in those particular congregations, than in the inner qualities of Christian character and integrity of life.
They have also heard of the Jesus at the liberal church – the Jesus who is politically correct and is more concerned with affirming people’s lifestyles, however sinful and corrupt, than in the truth and tough love.
I concur with Tony Campolo when he said:
“Our society has taken Jesus and recreated him in our own cultural image. When I hear Jesus being proclaimed from the television stations across our country, from pulpits hither and yon, he comes across not as the biblical Jesus, not as the Jesus described in the Bible, but as a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Republican … God created us in his image, but we have decided to return the favour and create a God who is in our image.”
So, who are you talking about when you mention Jesus?
It should be obvious that it’s vitally important to understand just who Jesus was and is. You see, our view of Jesus and our understanding of Him determines our response to Him. If we do not see clearly just who Jesus is, then we will act upon wrong information. Our lives will take a course based on a lie.
No other individual has impacted the course of history and western civilisation like Jesus. It is therefore important that we understand who He is. We must think biblically about Jesus. As Christians, we must know how to respond when we are called upon to introduce someone to Jesus.