Who Is Jesus?

Not too long ago, I saw a magazine cover with "Who Is Jesus?" on the cover.  Inside man tried to explain Him.  Man's knowledge will never do anything but make a religion out of the precious provisions God has made to bring us into His image.  He put the angel with the flaming sword to cut off the access to the Tree of Life so that man could not partake of it while living in his sin.  Sin, as we know it, was not evident in Adam at that time.  But sin as God proclaims it, was the cause of the loss of Light that clothed them and the garden that provided for them.  Adam had failed to give the covenant response of covering his covenant partner and protecting her from her own reasoning.  He disobeyed a covenant expectation of God by joining Eve in eating of the forbidden fruit.  Mankind has been feeding from that tree ever since.  Taking the control of knowledge into their own hands, they have sought knowledge to lighten their darkness and provide for their needs.

To the humble seeker, who seeks God, He gives His peace and mercy and leads in the path everlasting.  Jesus gave us a key when He said, "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you."  (Matthew 7:7 NIV)  Turning from the tree so available to all, the Tree of Life is available to those who come to God.  The disciples were dismayed when Jesus said He was returning to the Father.  But His return by the way of the cross, provided the way for the Holy Spirit to be sent to this realm as Guide, Teacher, and Spirit of Truth to lead man into the Light.  Jesus called men to be His disciples who were "unlearned" but willing to follow Him.  He became their teacher and friend.  They became the apostles to the Church.  That Church, born of the water and blood of His pierced side, is covenanted to the Father, taught by the Spirit, and joined to the Son.  We drink of the water He offers and He moves through us to a world steeped in darkness.

What we see in Jesus, born of Mary, living and ministering as a man, is a revelation of God's desire to make man in the image of God.  He came to show us what we can be on this earth.  He provided the way to share eternity with God in His joy and Light.  He is so much more than any segment that man can see.  But those who yield to the Spirit's guidance, will find a worship so pure, a joy so rich, and peace so unfathomable that fear is lost in the love He pours out.  This, the world feeding on the tree of knowledge, cannot understand.  This is why they must deny, dispute, and denigrate the Christian experience.  Those who follow their Lord, enjoying His Presence, must be relegated to the "deceived and ignorant" masses who must be eliminated or controlled by their superior knowledge.  This is why God can be ignored and thrust into the background and explained away--for the short time left in the span of time where God has given opportunity to mankind to choose.