Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“Now when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?“

Matthew 16:13-15

We get some REALLY weird ideas about Jesus. Ideas like He makes bets with the devil. Ideas that they are actually sibling level competitors. Ideas like Jesus is their best buddy with no more motivation than they have a good time. Ideas like might or might not heal you but really wants you to push through anyway so you can have a great living testimony. Ideas like Jesus only healed people whose lifestyles He approved of. Ideas like Jesus accepted everyone with no questions or comments but only loved them through total acceptance. These are all WEIRD ideas because NONE of them reflect the character OR the reality of Jesus. Who exactly IS Jesus to you? It’s THE question for everyone always.

Jesus is Adonai and Adonai is Jesus. They are ONE (John 10:30). Jesus is FAR ABOVE the devil. Always has been. Always will be. Jesus coming to Earth to take back the authority Adam gave away is sort of like the Vice President of the United States coming to the mayor of Dallas and demanding they follow a presidential order. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it is sort of the level of difference between them. The devil has NO GROUND to stand on. He is a created being, not on par with the creator. Everything we believe about his power and ability has been invented and spread about by him, not Adonai. The reality is that the WORD defeats the devil. EVERY TIME. If we stand on it, the devil will run away from it. Not US, but the WORD (James 4:7). He is powerless before it. Jesus (the Word incarnate) is, was, and always will be more powerful. Period. NO CONTEST.

Who Jesus IS has always been a question because we need to believe what He said about Himself and TRUST HIM. Trust is what Adonai is looking for. In today’s verses there were some reasonable things people thought He was, but my FAVOURITE is John the Baptizer. John baptized Jesus. They were clearly two men of comparable age. Born less than a year apart. Yes, John had been killed, but how could JESUS be JOHN? They were either going for some kind of possession scenario, the anointing having been passed on in a bodily way scenario, or they didn’t know Jesus was a whole real person and thought it was John in a witness protection program scenario. I don’t know WHAT they thought, but it is just too weird to me. Of all the things Jesus could have been, that one seems especially impossible.

The question of who Jesus is isn’t important from Jesus’ point of view. It’s important because of how we react to Him. When we think He’s only a great teacher, we can discredit what He taught and choose to reword or only follow what we feel meshes with our own worldview. If we can think of Jesus as different from what He actually IS, then we can form what amounts to our own Jesus-idol that fits our own religion in which we don’t have to encounter or deal with a morality different from what we WANT. It’s the same as when we look at Jesus as only one of many ways of accessing the entity collectively known as ‘god’. Or when we don’t let Adonai choose His pronouns – insisting on dealing with Him as a woman or genderless. It’s also easier to denounce His morality as inferior to our own human ‘understanding’ which really means accepting anything humans think of as good as THE ULTIMATE goodness out there.

Jesus is a challenging figure. He loved absolutely, but did not approve of everything or everyone. His character is clear (1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:22-23) and is absolute. He isn’t moved by our thinking, our opinions, or how we feel (Hebrews 13:8). He UNDERSTANDS us, but doesn’t automatically validate us (Hebrews 4:15). He understands us and still calls us to the ONLY Way to do things: giving glory to Adonai in accordance to Adonai’s Will. He still calls us to humbly submit. He still demands righteousness – but He provides us our own if we will align with Him. We aren’t getting a get-out-of-jail-free card. We can’t keep any morality we want. We can’t say that because we FEEL it, it is right and good. Jesus accepted PEOPLE. Jesus loved PEOPLE. Jesus neither loved nor accepted LIFESTYLES – whether they were godly or not. Adherence to the Law while harbouring hate in your heart was as bad as ignoring the Law and digging deep into ungodly acts. The only acceptable or good things are things Adonai SAYS are good – and we get that standard from the Word which Ruach HaKodesh wrote using particular scribes. It’s only hard when we see it from OUR point of view. When we see it from HIS point of view (which can take time, revelation, and REALLY listening to Ruach HaKodesh), it all makes sense.

Our knowledge of who Jesus is and how we react to that knowledge is what determines the level of relationship with Adonai that we get to enjoy. The more we know of Him (1 Corinthians 2:16), the more we are able to engage with Him. There IS a difference between us. YES, Jesus wants to be our friend. He STILL calls us to be completely righteous in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our friendship doesn’t change the relative standing between us. WE are the ones who chose for this to be a serious relationship (Genesis 3). It is OUR fault there is a divide. Jesus came to bridge it. To show us THE ONLY Way back (John 3:16-18). We need to really ask ourselves who Jesus is and then humbly submit to the truth when we listen to Ruach HaKodesh and get the revelation of it.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: 1 John 4:9-10

“By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Adonai doesn’t want there to be ANY mistake. We NEED to know and acknowledge who Jesus is. It is ADONAI who gives us this revelation, not something we realise on our own (Matthew 16:17). It is because it is SO serious that Adonai places the knowledge inside of us through Ruach HaKodesh. He revealed it to us through LOVE. He put that in us. We can ignore it. We can deny it. But deep down we KNOW it is there because we hear Ruach HaKodesh talk about it and we can feel our spirits reacting to it. Negatively or positively, it is there so that when we HEAR the Gospel message we get confirmation inside ourselves of what we have always on some level known. It makes answering His call SO MUCH EASIER. He wants EVERYONE to accept Him. He gives us this revelation so that nothing is left to chance. So that we get a REAL OPPORTUNITY to respond WHOLEHEARTEDLY. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8