Why Jesus? Who Are We, Anyway?

[HKHaugan]

Why Jesus? Who Are We, Anyway?

One thing we can say about living in this world is that we have become attached to our body.

Lots has been written about it.. The whole realm of science is absorbed in its place in the universe. One song carries a futile quest for its meaning, “You and me, we sweat and strain, bodies all aching and wracked with pain, tote that barge and lift that bale, get a little drunk and you land in jail. I gets weary and sick of living. I'm tired of living and feared of dying but “old man river,” he just keeps rolling along (“Old Man River,” Showboat, the musical). Music and lyrics are physical but their meaning is invisible. Just like language, its sounds are physical but their meaning is invisible.

The issue of our body is one that is always there as long as we live in this world. There are three things obvious about our body. First, we can't escape its captivity. Second, it contains our self-consciousness, being a person. Third, we don't know any other way to experience life than through our body. It is physical but there is a whole invisible process taking place within it.

In this visible physical body the obvious reality is an invisible process taking place.

First, there is the self-realization of being a single alone individual person. Second, there is a thinking and reasoning mind working with an attitudinally led heart. Third, there is a spirit that acts out what the mind and heart give it. Because this three fold process is invisible, it is the vulnerable basis that ends up in the speculative hands of philosophers, religionists, theologians, politicians and social scientists. The final assessment about how we handle this unseen process will always end up in the individual mind where choice is made. What each of us knows inside is our human existence is defined by what we believe, who we trust and how we, by faith, act the whole process out. Every human being goes through this same procedure with everything we do. Belief, trust and faith are what make us human beings. This is what the Bible means when it tells us we are each an image and likeness of God (Gen.1:26). The most telling passage of that image likeness is when Moses asks God who He is and God replies “I Am (Ex.3:14).” Then Jesus tells a group of Jewish leaders, “Before Abraham was born, I Am (John 8:58).” We are all images of the “I Am.”

So the final question for everyone is who do you trust in this invisible atmosphere to help you make right choices and decisions?

The 'who' is important because each of us is an individual, alone and unique, but also very relational. We live with others and our deepest need, because we are alone, is to feel right within and be confidently right without. Everyone needs help in navigating the unseen relational dimension which is where we find ourselves all the time. This makes everything subject to spiritual evaluation because everything we do is motivated by what we can't see. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2Cor.4:18).”

So we have been given three parallel spiritual truths about our physical existence:

First, our physical body carries our self-consciousness. The 'I am' in us is the spiritual body in our physical body.

Second, the physical body has spiritual significance. It contains the image of God's Trinity; mind, heart and spirit.

Third, the physical body has a spiritual purpose, to reflect God's mind, heart and Spirit so that others see Him and come to Him.

The reason therefore, we believe in Jesus is because He is the perfect demonstration of these truths at work.

“...He is the exact representation of His being...(Heb.1:3),” “He is the image of the invisible God...(Col.1:15),” “...and the Word was God (John 1:1).” He is the only one who has died, then risen from the dead, showing eternal life comes through a relationship with Him by faith. His Resurrection shows his life was the perfect life; His life is eternally spiritual, eternally personal and eternally relational. No other figure in history has, nor can claim, those kinds of credentials.

Now apply these truths to our identity concerns.

Who am I? Who are we? Are we really just the physical product of parental couples? Are we just material chance molecules evolving out of primordial collisions? Are we just another animal species with higher electronic brain functions? How do we handle questions of identity when it comes to living in a relational environment? Why do we have laws, social and political order, schools, churches and families? Until we are willing to make a personal decision about identity we are mere survivalists with questionable direction, following imperfect leadership and operating out of fear. One classic example is the prevalence in our consumer society of shopping malls where 'Black Friday' sales prompt the gathering of tent cities several days and nights outside of stores promising rock bottom pricing on their wares. How can we overlook the imposition of clothing styles, men with unkempt bearded cover-ups, women over-cosmeticized, children's toys designed to make parents look good, automobile multi-modeling, the fashionistas and their gaudy TV personalities foisted upon us? Sin is what fuels the surface issues of self-definition. It's what separates us from who we really are.

Or again, do we allow our body and its appetites define us?

Do we allow our possessions, neighborhoods, gender attraction, ethnic origins, emotions define us? When we tell others we are sensitive, stubborn, artistic, career oriented, or put a tag on someone else to define them as weak, strong willed, passive, weird, magnetic, whatever? In both ourselves and others, are we selling each other short and not seeing them all as human beings, images of God, first? If we can start there, that everyone is an image of God, a whole lot of our preconceptions about ourselves and others will be radically confronted and erased. Not only rejected, but our attitude about others will work the opposite of our first impressions. The fact that we have this need to define others by our definitions instead of God's is sin's evidence and proof of the fear it generates about what we can't see and understand.

Finally, are we communicating as images of God?

In our aloneness, that is in our mind, our heart of hearts and our spirit's motivation, are we expressing ourselves as images of God? None of us get it right to be sure. But if we start with being an image of God and let that become the basis of our mind, heart and spirit, that is how we will be seen, heard and thought about. Especially, what will come across, is how we see every one with whom we come in contact as the same, images of God like me. But even more basic is when we trust the exact of image of God, namely Jesus, to be our leader in the relational process, that's when it becomes real, open and honest. As we trust Him to define us as forgiven sinners our whole demeanor begins to change as we face the world of relational mystery as images of God freed to be that real, open and honest image led by His Spirit in our hearts. This is what it means to be risen with Christ (Col.3:1) and taking up our cross (Matt.16:24) as images of Him wherever we are and with whomever we are in contact.

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear again, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself testifies that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs---heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory (Rom.8:17).”