The Person Jesus

Jesus is LORD over all, and God has put everything under His feet.  When I grew up in the church I often heard of my need for Jesus as my "personal LORD and Saviour."  It was not enough for me to give mental ascent to the fact there is a God and He has been revealed in the person of Jesus, but to make a personal decision to receive Him by faith.  Whether my parents were "saved" did not remove my personal responsibility to choose to follow Jesus and obey Him.

When we say something is personal, we often mean it is something to keep private.  This is not the case when a soul is born again by the power of the Gospel, for a supernatural and transformational event has taken place.  The pop band Depeche Mode wrote a song about a "personal Jesus" that is not a Gospel song at all, for it suggests a person can be a "Jesus" figure for someone else, one who makes their life have meaning.  The "Jesus" depicted in that song who assures a caller of their acceptance and forgiveness reminds me of a personal pan pizza which translates to being very small, a light lunch for one person.  This isn't the meaning of Jesus being your personal LORD and Saviour at all, for He at once is a Saviour to all who trust in Him--with plenty left over.  To have "your own personal Jesus" excludes others and has it all backwards, for Jesus owns us having purchased us with His own blood.

Since the word "personal" never appears in scripture in the context of the Gospel, I view it as an unnecessary ornamentation or cliche that can potentially confuse people.  The Bible teaches God was manifested to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ, the "Word that became flesh and dwelt among us."  The disciples were eyewitnesses of His glory and many of these chose voluntary death rather than deny what they were convinced of:  they knew Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.  Jesus is not the Saviour we imagine He should be, for being God He is Who He is.  Jesus identified as "I AM," the almighty God who revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The personal opinions of men have no power to shift who God is.

It is an awesome truth the KING OF KINGS can and will save all who believe and receive the crucified and risen Jesus as Saviour.  This reality changes who we are as people, for Jesus is our life.  Paul urged believers in Colossians 2:6-10:  "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. ⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."  Those who receive Christ are made complete in Him, having an abundant life with thanksgiving.

One miracle Jesus did was to feed 5,000 men plus women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish--a personal-sized lunch of a lad who willingly offered it.  Jesus blessed the bread, broke it and directed His disciples to distribute it among the people who ate to the full.  There were 12 large baskets of fragments left over they gathered up.  This is a wonderful illustration how Jesus ministered to each one as much as they desired, and He is the Bread of Life who supplies more than we could ever need or want.  Our relationship with Him is deeply personal and eternal, and the abundant life Jesus offered by the Gospel is available to all who will choose to submit to Him in faith.