TWO DIFFERENT JESUSES!

Saturday 7 December

The Jesus of the gospels is not the Jesus of the New Testament. What does this mean? Remember the gospels are 99% set in the Old Testament and the Jesus of the gospels was crucified, gave up His Spirit, breathed his last and died the death of a criminal.

That Jesus was the incarnate Christ or the ‘Word become flesh’. Yeshua in the Hebrew which means means Jehovah will save, Joshua in English and Jesus in Greek. Incidentally, Jesus was not born, He was incarnated in the womb of Mary. His birth would happen later. We will come back to that thought.

He lived an ordinary life for 30 years. He virtually did no miracles until he was anointed by the Spirit. Why? Because He couldn’t. He needed the Spirit to do the works. The Spirit made Him the Messiah or Christ. He also put aside his attributes of Godhood to take on a human form.

John 1:14 says ‘And the word became flesh and dwelt among us’

In Philippians 2:7-8 the Apostle Paul continues Jesus’ story.

‘But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’

This Jesus gave up his ability to be God and became Immanuel or Emmanuel which many believe means ‘God with us’ but its actual meaning unveils a greater truth. It means ‘God is now a man just like us.’

The miracle of divinity in humanity. Jesus was the ‘only begotten son’ (John 3:16) meaning the only one to have come from God. This proves His deity as the Son of the living God and yet man.

This Jesus got tired and had to sleep. He was hungry and he had to eat. He got thirsty and needed water to drink. This was the Jesus of the gospels. He was Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, The carpenter’s son, Joseph and Mary’s eldest boy. This is the Jesus who died.

After the resurrection we see a new Jesus. This Jesus is called the exalted Jesus. Philippians 2:19 tells us this Jesus received the highest name. It was given to Him by the Father because He conquered death and the grave. He inherited it through conquest.

‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…’

This Jesus is called the first begotten from the dead and the first born of all creation.

Remember I told you that the first Jesus was not born? Well when that Jesus died spiritually and therefore physically, He was separated from the Father.

When that seperation and death occurred the man from Galilee died. The Jesus that came out of the grave however was the victorious and resurrected Lord and God, born for the first time of the Spirit, not born again.

Scripture confirms this statement in Psalm 2:7,

“I will declare the decree:

The Lord has said to Me,

‘You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You.

It is the same for us when we come out of spiritual death and are born of the Spirit. Before Christ we only had existence, not life. We don’t get born again, we are born once from above.

This Jesus is called the firstborn of all creation. He was the first of a new race of human beings called the New Creation.

When we receive salvation we too are begotten or born from the dead and are raised to newness of life in Christ. God has many begotten sons and daughters now in His ever growing family.

Of both Jesuses that we have seen, the ultimate question is: which Jesus do you see? The one who died or the one who is alive forevermore. The Jesus of the gospels or the Jesus of the epistles? Make no mistake about it; who you perceive Him to be will affect your perception of who you are in Him.

APPLICATION

Familiarise yourself with the resurrected, exalted Jesus and understand the authority and power vested in that name now belongs to all those who are in Christ by inheritance (Ephesians 3:14-15),(Colossians 1:12).