When women went to seek Jesus’ body in a graveyard with other buried bodies, two men in shining garments said to them: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:5-6).
I challenge the readers of this blog to consider: Are you seeking Jesus the way you seek other historical figures who are now dead? In other words, do you only admire the life He lived and the words He said in the same way that you admire the words and deeds of other historical figures, or do you seek Jesus as the Living God, and not merely a great Person of history?
Recently, I discovered 2 quotes (independent of each other) that drove home this point. Allow me to share them here:
1) “He [Brother Yun, of The Heavenly Man] wishes the whole world to know Jesus as he does, not as an historical, distant figure, but as an ever-present, love-filled, all-powerful Almighty God.” – Paul Hattaway, p. 14, The Heavenly Man
2) “Not all Christians think alike. Some believe that Christ was born only in Bethlehem for our salvation, and they celebrate this event at Christmas. Others, rejecting the spiritual contraceptives of unbelief and pride, have allowed Christ to be born also in their own souls after being touched by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, they have kept worldliness and false teaching from bringing the Divine embryo to abortion. He lives within their hearts…To all outward appearances, Jesus was a Jewish carpenter and rabbi. Thousands knew him without observing that he was more. His being Christ became visible only through spiritual insight./ Thus it is today. We must become Christian ‘in the inward parts’ (Psalm 51:6)./ A Christmas focusing only on the outward, historical event is perilous to the soul. It brings death in the disguise of merriment, whereas Christ born within brings life eternal.” – Richard Wurmbrand, “Don’t Believe Only in a Historical Christ”, from Voice of the Martyrs, Sept. 2012
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