Seeing Jesus with x-ray eyes
What is the secret of salvation? One view of Jesus. A deep view. A life-long, studied examination of Him. A view that looks into the thoughts and intents of His heart. It looks for His motive, it weighs His decisions. It looks for evidence of one general thing—real deep love of God. It takes in His outward actions and sleuths back to His inner grace. It requires detective skill and hope and faith; at the very start wanting to know that love and acceptance is what will be found in Him. “He that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.” (1Cor. 9:10).
If we have a great need for a faithful friend in God, we will learn the detective skills needed to discern love in all that Jesus did and said. And we will appropriate His love to the people back then to us today. As desperate detectives, we will take our big magnifying glass, anointing our eyes with the Spirit of God, and go in search for we know not exactly what. But we look for a character whose builder and maker is God.
“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.” (Jn. 6:40). This sounds like He made a strange statement to the people that day. Didn’t that whole generation see Jesus? Didn’t they all get a good look at Him? Yes, most likely. If some didn’t, it wasn’t because they didn’t have opportunity. Yet, the vast majority weren’t saved by the look they got. They didn’t come alive after looking, like they should have. They looked at Him the wrong way.
One day, someone asked Him, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” (Lk. 13:23). His answer was basically, “Yes.” But listen to His reason why few are saved. “Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Vs. 26,27). The Messiah had passed through every part of Israel, even to the outer countries, criss-crossing as He traversed the whole region, preaching and teaching and healing. Yet, to so many He was nothing more than a spectacle, like the circus coming to town. He was gawked at as Mr. Miracle, or bowed down to as Mr. Important, or applauded as Mr. Popular. They were giving Him the celebrity treatment they wished for themselves. They treated Him just like the Romans did their heroes. It was worldly. The homage they paid their long-sought Messiah was idolatrous.
They kept Him at a 10 foot distance. They didn’t need a Savior or a Friend when being their Friend and Savior was the only reason He came unto His own. They desired shallow, surface relationships. Their idols and self already ministered to their deeper needs. There was no place left in the deep recesses of their heart for the Lord or anyone else. Satan and his religion had wooed them, and was petting them and their darling sins. In his religion they could weep for themselves in self-pity, and feel good about their wonderful morality and emotional exercises. But Satan’s religion never led them to bow the proud heart and fall before undeserved and undying divine love. The deception was ingenious.
With the crowd in such a fevered uproar about the humble Jesus of Nazareth when He’d come to town, it was easy to get caught up in the crowd’s attitude towards Him, even influencing many who were in need of a perfect friend. But some unconsciously clung to their search for a friendly Messiah. This was the case of the woman with the decade-long bleeding disorder. While the people were excited and jostling Jesus, only her touch of great need did He notice. His power went to no one else but her. But she had to bend all of her effort and strength to not be trampled and to get through the careless celebrants. She had to bend all her willpower and energy, and strive to enter in to where she could barely touch His hem.
Jesus made her strive as He moved past her. The more you have to expend energy and brainpower, the greater the reward. If you don’t strive, you don’t deserve a reward. He that doesn’t work shouldn’t eat. 1Thess. 3:10. But he that does work is worthy of his reward. 1Tim. 5:18. And he who strives the most, gets the greatest reward. Christ severely tested her resolve to get to Him because He knew her already; He didn’t give her more difficulty than she could handle. And she got to Him and found out what Jesus was really about.
In her healing she saw Jesus not only as a healer but as the Saviour of her soul. In His virtue all her doubts about God’s watch care dissolved and washed away. She was a new creature in Him, made whole—body, soul, and spirit. Her whole faith she rested on Him. She saw Him and His grace, and placed all her hope in Him. Her faith permitted Him to heal and to justify her, and her testimony of His mercy sealed the transaction and transformation.
If we would be justified and healed of sin’s maladies in our character, supernatural vision must see through all that Satan has put up as a screen. We must get past the requirements of the laws, taboos and requirements set up by man. We must get past all the doctrine and morality. We must take all the guilt and shame, and get to HIM. We must peer into the mind of Christ. We must see Him knowing His Father. We must see the Son, the Beloved of God, His little One who pleases His heart very well. We must intensely watch the communion between Him and the great heart of His big Father.
This can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit anointing our minds to see love in Jesus as we study the Bible. But if we don’t strive to see love, the anointing will never happen. We must pray to know Him and then put forth 100% of our willpower to work our prayer to know Him. That will leave 0% willpower to do anything else, such as worrying about our morality and our success at overcoming our defects and sins.
If it takes extra Bible study, prayer, missionary work to see the Son, then take it. If it takes serving others, the spouse and children, the siblings or parents, then do it. If it takes helping or cooperating with neighbors or pleasing the supervisor and co-workers, then do it. “Let not thine hands be slack” when it comes to developing the vision to see the Lord, and trusting wholly in the gracious love and loving-kindness that we see in Him. (Zeph. 3:16).
And if we see Him and lay all our hope upon His love, then victory over sins will simply happen—but not until we come to hope fully in the Friend and Savior we have been studying. Our vision will become full of His righteousness, our will filled with His power; and the soul will expel each sin, one by one, with a supernatural willpower we couldn’t have mustered.
In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God. Desire of Ages, p. 466.
Salvation and eternity hinge on the right action of our will. Instead of trying to stomp out your sins and faults, will you choose to study Him until you bow your whole self to His grace and truth, thus giving Him your will? Do you now choose to be a Christian?
Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him. Steps to Christ, p. 47.
As by getting too close to spiritualism people are pulled in to Satan, so peering closely at Jesus and His life will draw us in to Him. Then falling at His feet in humble contrition and submission, He will give us His righteousness. He will encircle us with His arms and claim us as His own. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” (Jn. 10:28,29).
If we have a great need for a faithful friend in God, we will learn the detective skills needed to discern love in all that Jesus did and said. And we will appropriate His love to the people back then to us today. As desperate detectives, we will take our big magnifying glass, anointing our eyes with the Spirit of God, and go in search for we know not exactly what. But we look for a character whose builder and maker is God.
“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.” (Jn. 6:40). This sounds like He made a strange statement to the people that day. Didn’t that whole generation see Jesus? Didn’t they all get a good look at Him? Yes, most likely. If some didn’t, it wasn’t because they didn’t have opportunity. Yet, the vast majority weren’t saved by the look they got. They didn’t come alive after looking, like they should have. They looked at Him the wrong way.
One day, someone asked Him, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” (Lk. 13:23). His answer was basically, “Yes.” But listen to His reason why few are saved. “Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Vs. 26,27). The Messiah had passed through every part of Israel, even to the outer countries, criss-crossing as He traversed the whole region, preaching and teaching and healing. Yet, to so many He was nothing more than a spectacle, like the circus coming to town. He was gawked at as Mr. Miracle, or bowed down to as Mr. Important, or applauded as Mr. Popular. They were giving Him the celebrity treatment they wished for themselves. They treated Him just like the Romans did their heroes. It was worldly. The homage they paid their long-sought Messiah was idolatrous.
They kept Him at a 10 foot distance. They didn’t need a Savior or a Friend when being their Friend and Savior was the only reason He came unto His own. They desired shallow, surface relationships. Their idols and self already ministered to their deeper needs. There was no place left in the deep recesses of their heart for the Lord or anyone else. Satan and his religion had wooed them, and was petting them and their darling sins. In his religion they could weep for themselves in self-pity, and feel good about their wonderful morality and emotional exercises. But Satan’s religion never led them to bow the proud heart and fall before undeserved and undying divine love. The deception was ingenious.
With the crowd in such a fevered uproar about the humble Jesus of Nazareth when He’d come to town, it was easy to get caught up in the crowd’s attitude towards Him, even influencing many who were in need of a perfect friend. But some unconsciously clung to their search for a friendly Messiah. This was the case of the woman with the decade-long bleeding disorder. While the people were excited and jostling Jesus, only her touch of great need did He notice. His power went to no one else but her. But she had to bend all of her effort and strength to not be trampled and to get through the careless celebrants. She had to bend all her willpower and energy, and strive to enter in to where she could barely touch His hem.
Jesus made her strive as He moved past her. The more you have to expend energy and brainpower, the greater the reward. If you don’t strive, you don’t deserve a reward. He that doesn’t work shouldn’t eat. 1Thess. 3:10. But he that does work is worthy of his reward. 1Tim. 5:18. And he who strives the most, gets the greatest reward. Christ severely tested her resolve to get to Him because He knew her already; He didn’t give her more difficulty than she could handle. And she got to Him and found out what Jesus was really about.
In her healing she saw Jesus not only as a healer but as the Saviour of her soul. In His virtue all her doubts about God’s watch care dissolved and washed away. She was a new creature in Him, made whole—body, soul, and spirit. Her whole faith she rested on Him. She saw Him and His grace, and placed all her hope in Him. Her faith permitted Him to heal and to justify her, and her testimony of His mercy sealed the transaction and transformation.
If we would be justified and healed of sin’s maladies in our character, supernatural vision must see through all that Satan has put up as a screen. We must get past the requirements of the laws, taboos and requirements set up by man. We must get past all the doctrine and morality. We must take all the guilt and shame, and get to HIM. We must peer into the mind of Christ. We must see Him knowing His Father. We must see the Son, the Beloved of God, His little One who pleases His heart very well. We must intensely watch the communion between Him and the great heart of His big Father.
This can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit anointing our minds to see love in Jesus as we study the Bible. But if we don’t strive to see love, the anointing will never happen. We must pray to know Him and then put forth 100% of our willpower to work our prayer to know Him. That will leave 0% willpower to do anything else, such as worrying about our morality and our success at overcoming our defects and sins.
If it takes extra Bible study, prayer, missionary work to see the Son, then take it. If it takes serving others, the spouse and children, the siblings or parents, then do it. If it takes helping or cooperating with neighbors or pleasing the supervisor and co-workers, then do it. “Let not thine hands be slack” when it comes to developing the vision to see the Lord, and trusting wholly in the gracious love and loving-kindness that we see in Him. (Zeph. 3:16).
And if we see Him and lay all our hope upon His love, then victory over sins will simply happen—but not until we come to hope fully in the Friend and Savior we have been studying. Our vision will become full of His righteousness, our will filled with His power; and the soul will expel each sin, one by one, with a supernatural willpower we couldn’t have mustered.
In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan’s control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God. Desire of Ages, p. 466.
Salvation and eternity hinge on the right action of our will. Instead of trying to stomp out your sins and faults, will you choose to study Him until you bow your whole self to His grace and truth, thus giving Him your will? Do you now choose to be a Christian?
Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him. Steps to Christ, p. 47.
As by getting too close to spiritualism people are pulled in to Satan, so peering closely at Jesus and His life will draw us in to Him. Then falling at His feet in humble contrition and submission, He will give us His righteousness. He will encircle us with His arms and claim us as His own. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” (Jn. 10:28,29).
posted by David | 12:34 PM
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