“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the
brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters
here with us? And they were offended at him.” – Mark 6:3
Jesus
was and forever will be the only man that was God and God that was man. The scripture tells us that he willingly left
heaven 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.” He was/is the redeeming instrument, he was
the son of man, and he is the Son of God.
We must believe this to be saved.
Despite
every effort to forget, I can still remember my days spent in high school. One moment that particularly sticks out in my
mind is the day I read the name Jesus in my history book. It is sad to say that not a whole lot of ink
and parchment was spent on the subject of our Savior. This was sad, but not surprising, what
gripped my thoughts that day was this “he was a man.” I know it’s odd and painfully obvious, but
this point cannot be debated. There was
a Jesus of Nazareth. He walked this
earth, he had a home, a Mother, a family, brothers, sisters. He had a job, he was a man. Somehting about reading his name in a history
book brought about a strange realization that he was a human being. There is no question about this. It takes nothing to believe this and many still,
thousands of years later look on Jesus as some of those Jews of old did. “Is not this the carpenter? We know this man, we know his family, his
deeds, his background, and he is JUST another man.” What does it mean to believe in Jesus as you
would believe in another man? We believe
men can heal our hurts, we believe men can help our marriages, we believe men
can help our happiness, our finances, our safety, our children. We trust in man for practically everything in
our life, but not our sin. Who can
cleanse the wickedness within? Can
another man do it? When you see Jesus as just another man, your
unbelief shackles him. It keeps him from
doing miraculous things in your life. We
cannot look to him as we would a doctor or psychiatrist; with this mentality of
“you fix me and I pay you then we both go on our way.” Jesus Christ is not, just another man, he doesn’t
want money or token sacrifices. There is
no amount of tribute that can be paid to call down his healing. It is not barter, it is belief that brings
the healing of Jesus. You must believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, have faith, and follow Him.
When
you believe that he is the Son of God, the bread of life, the living water, the
resurrection, the truth, the King of Kings; when you truly believe this, all
things are possible. There is no hurt
that Jesus cannot heal and no sin that Jesus cannot cleanse. The power of Jesus Chirst in our lives is
limited only by our belief, our trust in him.
When you view Jesus as just another man he can do nothing for you, but
Jesus the Christ can do all things. The
question is who do you say the Son of Man is?
