Jesus once asked His disciples the question of all questions: "Who do men say that I am?" Today, as then, wrong answers abound, they're just different. Skeptics deny that Jesus ever existed. Secularists and religious liberals say He was a great philosopher or a supreme moral example.
The Purpose-Driven and Emergent church present Jesus as "savior" -- but not the only Savior from sin and wrath. Jesus is the "savior" of society, the economy, the world-system -- if only the world will follow His ethical precepts. And all the while, many if not most people in their churches remain lost and Hell-bound without the true Christ.
After hearing the wrong answers, Jesus made the question more personal: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter responded without hesitation, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." The Greek word for "image" tells us that He is the exact representation and complete revelation of God the Father -- so exact, so complete, that as Jesus himself said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."
Jesus came to reveal God's holiness, and to confront man with his sinfulness. He came to warn of the Father's wrath against sin. He spoke far more of Hell than of Heaven.
But He also came to reveal the Father's heart to provide a way to redeem sinful man. And He came as the visible manifestation of the invisible God in order to be that Way. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.”
That's our focus this week as week as we continue our series, Christ Above All: Studies in Colossians. |
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