The View from My Place – “Jesus Beyond Words”

The better I get to know Jesus, the better I understand the Scriptures.  The reverse is not necessarily true, because it is possible to be quite knowledgeable about the Bible and totally ignorant of its Author (John 5:39).

I remember a scene from the series “Chosen,” (which takes quite a bit of artistic license to portray what it was like to walk with Jesus, but is terrifically inspirational) in which a Pharisee says in a voice that was both threatening and chilling, “The Law is God.”  I could not disagree more.  But more important, the Scripture itself repudiates that view.  As Paul said to the Galatians the purpose of the Law was to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24).

I met a young man who was insistent that the Bible was God.  No, that is not true.  Jesus is the living word.  He is the word of God incarnate (John 1:14).  He is personally knowable, and it is only in knowing Him personally that we can understand the true meaning of His words.  He is the One who opens the Scriptures up to us so we can understand how they reflect His person (Luke 24:44-45).

This is not merely a matter of semantics.  Jesus identifies Himself as the Living One who was dead but is now alive forevermore (Revelation 1:17-18).  Our faith is not in words written by men long dead, but in the One to whom those words direct us.  Under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, those precious words, which we rightly revere and rely upon, point us to a Savior who is as alive today as He ever has been throughout history.  That is one of the reasons Communion is so important for believers.  It not only focuses us on the words written about Jesus but on Jesus Himself.  A focus that we are wise and blessed to maintain at all times.  A focus that is the difference between experiencing fellowship with Jesus versus a mere philosophy of Jesus.