Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 26, 2014
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? John 14:9-10
Jesus Christ is God. He claimed oneness with His heavenly Father to His disciples. When they saw Jesus they saw the Father. He displayed His divinity with His perfect character. He validated His status as Savior and Lord by His miracles. His clear public teaching of His equality with God brought out the wrath of the religious leaders. His elevation to Deity in the minds of mere mortals was a threat to the reigning monarchs of men. Christ is in God and God is in Christ.
The familiarity of Phillip’s faith had failed to become faith in Jesus as God. He wanted to see before He believed, but His Savior first bid him to believe and then he would see. Philip had been around the Lord and His works, but the Lord had not done a personal work of grace in his heart. Has your faith become so familiar that it is only a family tradition? You love the church, but has Christ really captured your heart? Trust in Jesus as God transforms your life!
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).
Since Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus, by faith we are in Christ and Christ is in us. This is a mystery of the Christian life: that the fullness of God lives within all who embrace Jesus as God. When we said ‘I do’ to our Savior, we vowed that He was everything He claimed to be. Our groom, Christ–desires us to grow in grace each day through oneness with Him. Our unity with the triune God means love is manifest in our life. Christ in us transforms us into His loving likeness.
Therefore, when people see you do they see Jesus? Is your soul so surrendered to your Savior that what comes from your inner being is beautiful to behold? A soul submitted to Christ loves like Christ. A mind saturated with the thoughts of Christ thinks like Christ. A heart filled with the character of Christ behaves like Christ. A life aligned with the Lord is one with His will. Thus, we trust Christ is God and spend a lifetime learning what it means–as He changes us. We believe and then we are able to see. Our next step of trust in Jesus shows us more of Jesus!
“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I believe Christ is in me and I am in Christ. By faith through grace may He live His life through me.
Related Readings: Isaiah 9:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3
Post/Tweet today: We believe and then we are able to see. Our next step of trust in Jesus shows us more of Jesus. #wisdomhunters
Additional Resource: 2 minute audio, Lloyd Jones- Christ’s Deity: http://bit.ly/1th3A5J
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