“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. Sad to say, but not a
whole lot of ink and parchment was spent on the subject of our Savior. This was not surprising, and while sat there
pouring over those few sentences again and again what gripped my thoughts that
day 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. Something about
reading his name in a history book brought about this realization that he was a
human being, and he walked on Earth like you and me. There is no question about this. It takes nothing to believe this and many,
thousands of years later, still 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. It is God’s grace
that allows us to approach the throne.
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 Christ 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? Do you believe he is Jesus the man
or Jesus the Christ?
