November 9

“....we must never accept any conception of God that is contrary to what we see in Christ.  We must utterly reject any view of God’s character or acts or any statement of His relationships with us, no matter how strongly upheld, that is at variance with what Christ has revealed.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 10/20

Jesus said He was one with the Father and anyone that has seen Him has seen the Father.  I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated this fact.  Jesus was God incarnate--God in the flesh--I know that.  But what I haven’t let sink in is the fact that everything written about Jesus applies to God.  If I find it difficult to have a real relationship with God, I need only think in terms of Jesus.  Perhaps this has been my problem.....I’ve separated Jesus from God to the extent that I’ve made  Jesus merely a link.  I think the theology of the Trinity, in its attempt to explain God, has led me to this separation.  I’ve taken it literally when it was meant to explain.  God came to earth in the form of Jesus so that I could understand Him.  His death on the cross was meant to show me how much He loves me.  It wasn’t literally necessary that He die.  God could have done anything He wanted to do to satisfy His Justice and show His Mercy.  He did it for us because that was the only thing we could understand.  I believe Jesus was explaining this when He said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  (John 15:13)  Let this settle once and for all any questions you may have about God’s love.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”  John 14:6