◄ The Mystery of Christ ►

How that by revelation He made known unto me….. the mystery of Christ”
Ephesians 3:3-4

Critical Question

The mystery of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ resides within His own nature, “What think ye of Me?” was the critical question Jesus asked His disciples. He knew what men considered Him to be – the reincarnation of some past prophet: ”But who do you say that I am?” was His question, “what think ye of Me?” Each one of us needs to consider Jesus. Each of us needs to be equipped with a right thinking of Him.

Simple Question

The multifaceted, superlative attributes of God are indeed most astonishing, and we do well to consider them in reverence and awe. For He is almighty, immutable, transcendent and eternal. He is divinely omniscient. He is the omnipotent, omnipresent, tri-unity – He is indeed sovereign and infinite. And yet these holy and godly abstractions are condensed into concrete reality.. in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He asks His simple yet searching question, “what think ye of Me?”

Astonishing Answer

We are not expected to attempt to understand mental abstractions of God’s character.. although His unsurpassed, preeminent, excellent magnificence is ever before us. Yet in the simplest and most wonderful way, He told us Who He is: “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” He who has seen Me has seen God. John 14:9

Generating Centre

We are expected, by faith, to listen to His Word and to accept His explanation, for Jesus is the only medium, the only link – the only channel to the Father. He has made us His dwelling place and we are indeed the temple of the most High. But modern ethics and thinking considers God and humanity as one and the same! But this is to distort the simple fact that God was manifest in the flesh in Jesus, so that He might become the generating centre of all Who believe in His name.

Heart Submission

Jesus proclaimed ‘I and My Father are One” – for “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 The believer is one with Christ when His Spirit resides within. He wants us to rest in Him and submit to His leading and guiding through His Spirit. Indeed, heart submission is His dear desire for each of His own: “Abide in me, and I in you” John 15:7

Submit or Resist

But submission is a choice. Some chose to resist His Spirit – and some choose to quench His Spirit, while others in the conceits of their own hearts, by self-effort, seek to imitate Him. Many make great effort to emulate and copy the life of the Lord Jesus. Many also seek to carry out His commands through their own will and ability.. but we can never become like Him through endeavour, imitation, or self-effort.

Human Strategies

We can never be like Him by applying human strategies or human programs. We cannot curb the fleshly tempers or appetites by conscious effort or monastic existence. This is the thinking of the world but it should never be that of the believer. When a man attempts thus to design his living, to reflect that of Christ, he will fail. A wayfaring man that so errs in the ways of God, is wise in his own conceits.

Pure Diagnosis

God will often apply His chastising rod on the back of such a man or woman of His. God uses all the facts and realities of life to humble us before His throne of grace, and through our self-analysis or introspection, we discover our efforts are in vain.. until at last, the Holy Spirit gains our attention – until, in the end, He makes His pure diagnosis of our vain, self-efforts.

Painful Process

He will then take us through His profoundly, painful process. He will use this and that heartbreaking strategy to gain our exhausted attention, until in discouragement we see that we are not, by effort, able to become like Him.. until in desperation we cry:- "depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord..” Luke 5:8 – until all such aspects or attitudes are rooted out by the Spirit’s two-edged sword.

Central Citadel

Any aspect or attitude of our lives which are not of Christ have their roots in Self, but the central citadel and supreme stronghold of Christianity is Jesus Christ alone, The very person of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be the central focus of our hearts. He is the Alpha and Omega of all life’s struggles. He is the supreme Staff and Standard. Either you submit willingly to being conformed into the image of His Son – or through time, He will apply innumerable painful strategies to change you into His likensss. What think ye of Jesus Christ.